Education in Tennessee

Protestant activists created the Western Freedmen's Aid Commission in Cincinnati in January 1863. Its goal was to set up schools for freed slaves in Union-controlled districts in the western states. It was most active in Tennessee, where, in 1865, its 123 white teachers provided manual and domestic training as well as academic instruction. There were 1949 students in Memphis and over 300 in Clarksville. Starting in 1865 the government's Freemen's Bureau provided the school buildings and the Commission provided the teachers, typically young women from the New England diaspora.William Preston Vaughn, Schools for All: The Blacks and Public Education in the South, 1865–1877 (1974), p. 4.Alrutheus Ambush Taylor, The Negro in Tennessee, 1865-1880 (1941) pp. 168-170.

Public primary and secondary education systems are operated by county, city, or special school districts to provide education at the local level, and operate under the direction of the Tennessee Department of Education.{{sfn|Lyons, Scheb, & Stair|2001|pp=286–287}} The state also has many private schools.{{cite web |title=Nonpublic Schools |url=https://www.tn.gov/education/school-options/non-public-schools.html |website=tn.gov |publisher=Tennessee Department of Education |access-date=May 27, 2021 |location=Nashville |archive-date=May 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527003332/https://www.tn.gov/education/school-options/non-public-schools.html |url-status=dead }}

The state enrolls approximately 1 million K–12 students in 137 districts.{{cite web |title=Education Choices in Tennessee |url=https://www.tn.gov/education/school-options.html |website=tn.gov |publisher=Tennessee Department of Education |access-date=May 27, 2021 |location=Nashville |archive-date=May 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527003313/https://www.tn.gov/education/school-options.html |url-status=dead }} In 2021, the four-year high school graduation rate was 88.7%, a decrease of 1.2% from the previous year.{{cite press release |author= |title=TDOE Releases 2020-21 Graduation Rate Data|url=https://www.tn.gov/education/news/2021/11/23/tdoe-releases-2020-21-graduation-rate-data.html |location=Nashville |publisher=Tennessee Department of Education |date=November 23, 2021 |access-date=June 23, 2022}} According to the most recent data, Tennessee spends $9,544 per student, the 8th lowest in the nation.{{cite news |last1=Rau |first1=Nate |title=Education funding in TN reaches breaking point as BEP lawsuit advances |url=https://tennesseelookout.com/2021/03/25/education-funding-in-tn-reaches-breaking-point-as-bep-lawsuit-advances/ |access-date=May 27, 2021 |work=Tennessee Lookout |date=March 25, 2021}}

{{main|List of colleges and universities in Tennessee}}

File:Vandy-kirkland.jpg in Nashville is consistently ranked as one of the top research institutions in the nation]]

Public higher education is overseen by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC), which provides guidance to the state's two public university systems. The University of Tennessee system operates four primary campuses in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Martin, and Pulaski; a Health Sciences Center in Memphis; and an aerospace research facility in Tullahoma.{{cite web |title=About the UT System |url=https://tennessee.edu/about/ |website=tennessee.edu |publisher=The University of Tennessee System |location=Knoxville, TN}} The Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR), also known as The College System of Tennessee, operates 13 community colleges and 27 campuses of the Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology (TCAT).{{cite web |title=Our Institutions |url=https://www.tbr.edu/institutions/our-institutions |website=tbr.edu |date=May 2018 |publisher=Tennessee Board of Regents |access-date=May 27, 2021 |location=Nashville}} Until 2017, the TBR also operated six public universities in the state; it now only gives them administrative support.{{cite web|last=Roberts|first=Jane|date=June 9, 2016|title=Haslam marks University of Memphis independence from Board of Regents|url=http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/schools/haslam-marks-u-of-m-independence-from-tbr-in-event-today-34da6806-8404-606d-e053-0100007f302c-382389981.html|work=The Commercial Appeal|location=Memphis|access-date=May 26, 2021}}

In January 1952, the University of Tennessee was the first major southern university to admit blacks.Raffel, p. xxv.

In 2014, the Tennessee General Assembly created the Tennessee Promise, which allows in-state high school graduates to enroll in two-year post-secondary education programs such as associate degrees and certificates at community colleges and trade schools in Tennessee tuition-free, funded by the state lottery, if they meet certain requirements.{{cite web |last1=Carruthers |first1=Celeste |date=May 6, 2019 |title=5 things to know about the Tennessee Promise Scholarship |url=https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2019/05/06/five-things-to-know-about-the-tennessee-promise-scholarship/ |publisher=Brookings Institution |access-date=October 7, 2020}} The Tennessee Promise was created as part of then-governor Bill Haslam's "Drive to 55" program, which set a goal of increasing the number of college-educated residents to at least 55% of the state's population. The program has also received national attention, with multiple states having since created similar programs modeled on the Tennessee Promise.{{cite news |last=Tamburin |first=Adam |title=Tennessee Promise inspires national trend |url=https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/education/2017/02/09/tennessee-promise-inspires-national-trend/96164406/ |access-date=May 27, 2021 |work=The Tennessean |date=February 9, 2017 |location=Nashville, TN}}

Tennessee has 107 private institutions.{{cite web |title=College Navigator - Search Results |url=https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?s=TN&ct=2+3 |website=nces.gov |publisher=National Center for Education Statistics |access-date=May 27, 2021}} Vanderbilt University in Nashville is consistently ranked as one of the nation's leading research institutions.{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/colleges/vanderbilt-university/#353b4ac46c61|title=Vanderbilt University|author=|date=2019|work=Forbes|access-date=April 26, 2020}} Nashville is often called the "Athens of the South" due to its many colleges and universities.{{cite book |title=Classical Nashville: Athens of the South |publisher=Vanderbilt University Press |location=Nashville |first1=Christine M |last1=Kreyling |first2=Wesley |last2=Paine |first3=Charles W |last3=Warterfield |first4=Susan Ford |last4=Wiltshire |year=1996 |isbn=0-585-13200-3}} Tennessee is also home to six historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).{{cite web |title=HBCU Schools in Tennessee - 2018 Ranking |url=https://hbcu-colleges.com/tennessee |website=hbcu-colleges.com |access-date=May 27, 2021}}

• List of school districts in Tennessee
• List of high schools in Tennessee
• History of education in the Southern United States

• Baker, A. Paige, and Dengke Xu. "The Measure of Education: A Review of the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System." (1995) [https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED388697.pdf online in ERIC].
• Doak, H. M. "The Development of Education in Tennessee." The American Historical Magazine and Tennessee Historical Society Quarterly 8.1 (1903): 64-90; coverage to 1880. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/45331990.pdf online]
• Goldhaber, Dan, and Karen Callahan. "Impact of the Basic Education Program on educational spending and equity in Tennessee." Journal of Education Finance 26.4 (2001): 415-435. [Goldhaber, Dan, and Karen Callahan. "Impact of the Basic Education Program on educational spending and equity in Tennessee." Journal of Education Finance 26.4 (2001): 415-435. online]

• Israel, Charles Alan. Before scopes: evangelicalism, education, and evolution in Tennessee, 1870-1925 (University of Georgia Press, 2004) [https://books.google.com/books?id=giWD1dSrLjoC&pg=PP11&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false online].

• {{cite book |last1=Lyons |first1=William |last2=Scheb II |first2=John M. |last3=Stair |first3=Billy |date=2001 |title=Government and Politics in Tennessee |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ac0Qtk_c7uoC |location=Knoxville, TN |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |isbn=9781572331419 |ref={{sfnref|Lyons, Scheb, & Stair|2001}} |via=Google Books}}
• Merriam, Lucius Salisbury. Higher education in Tennessee (US Government Printing Office, 1893) [https://books.google.com/books?id=hQGdmfjqBP0C&dq=education+Tennessee&pg=PA13 online].
• Rolle, Anthony, and Keke Liu. "An empirical analysis of horizontal and vertical equity in the public schools of Tennessee, 1994-2003." Journal of Education Finance (2007): 328-351. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40704298 online]

• SAMPLES, RALPH EDWARD.  "THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN TENNESSEE DURING THE BOURBON ERA, 1870-1900" (PhD dissertation, University of Tennessee; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing,  1965. 6608205).

• Williams, Frank B. “John Eaton, Jr., Editor, Politician, and School Administrator, 1865-1870.” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 10#4 (1951), pp. 291–319. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/42621084 online]

• Fleming, Cynthia Griggs. "The development of Black Education in Tennessee, 1865-1920" (PhD dissertation, Duke University, 1977) [https://www.proquest.com/openview/1af2b3553edcfad46a44f21bcd2af38b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y online].

• Fraser, Walter J. "John Eaton, Jr., Radical Republican: Champion of the Negro and Federal Aid to Education." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 25.3 (1966): 239+ [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42622883 online]

• Hodgson, Frank McGuire. "Northern Missionary Aid Societies, the Freedmen's Bureau, and Their Effects on Education in Montgomery County, Tennessee" West Tennessee Historical Society Papers 43 (1989): 28-43.

• Hoffschwelle, Mary. "The Federal Connection: Impact Aid and Black Public Education in Milan, 1874–1975." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 75.1 (2016): 28-63. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/26540214 online]

• Kickler, Troy Lee, "Black Children and Northern Missionaries, Freedmen's Bureau Agents, and Southern Whites in Reconstruction Tennessee, 1865 -1869. " PhD dissertation, University of Tennessee, 2005) [https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/2648 online]

• McGehee, C. Stuart. "E. 0. Tade, Freedmen's Education, and the Failure of Reconstruction in Tennessee." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 43 (1984): 378-380. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/42626481 online]

• Phillips, Paul David. "Education of Blacks in Tennessee During Reconstruction, 1865-1870." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 46.2 (1987): 98-109. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42626663 online]

• Raffel, Jeffrey. Historical dictionary of school segregation and desegregation: The American experience (Greenwood, 1998) [https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio0000raff online]

• Ramsey, Sonya Yvette. "More than the three R's: The educational economic, and cultural experiences of African American female public school teachers in Nashville, Tennessee, 1869 to 1983" (PhD dissertation, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000) [https://www.proquest.com/openview/e676e9b6c86b7059f8bdc7c7c4046ee9/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y online].

• Savage, Carter Julian. "Cultural capital and African American agency: The economic struggle for effective education for African Americans in Franklin, Tennessee, 1890-1967." Journal of African American History 87.2 (2002): 206-235. [https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.2307/1562464 online]

• Savage, Carter Julian. " 'Because We Did More With Less': The Agency of African American Teachers in Franklin, Tennessee: 1890-1967." Peabody Journal of Education 76.2 (2001): 170-203. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carter-Savage/publication/248942872_Because_We_Did_More_With_Less_The_Agency_of_African_American_Teachers_in_Franklin_Tennessee_1890-1967/links/54b313700cf2318f0f953e89/Because-We-Did-More-With-Less-The-Agency-of-African-American-Teachers-in-Franklin-Tennessee-1890-1967.pdf online]
• Taylor, Alrutheus Ambush. The Negro in Tennessee, 1865-1880 (1941)

• Smithwick, Brannon Marie. "Educating Generations: The Legacy and Future of the Allen-White School Campus, a Rosenwald School in Whiteville, Tennessee" (PhD dissertation, University of Southern California, 2023) [https://www.proquest.com/openview/57628b755fcb29cab37d2a23ed66feae/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y online].

• STITELY, THOMAS BEANE.   "BRIDGING THE GAP: A HISTORY OF THE ROSENWALD FUND IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL NEGRO SCHOOLS IN TENNESSEE 1912-1932." (PhD dissertation, Peabody College for Teachers of Vanderbilt University) ProQuest Dissertations Publishing,  1975. 7522292).

• Whipple, Lorena B., "African American Oral Histories of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Public Schools During the Early Days of Desegregation, 1955 – 1967. " (PhD dissertation, University of Tennessee, 2013) [https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/2626 online]

• Eaton, John. First Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Tennessee, Ending Thursday, October 7th, 1869 (1869) [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ec0OAQAAMAAJ&dq=john+eaton+jr+tennessee&pg=PA1 online].

• Graf, Leroy P. "Education in East Tennessee, 1867-1869, Selections from the John Eaton, Jr. Papers." East Tennessee Historical Society's Publications 23 (1951).
• Swint, Henry Lee, ed. "Reports from Educational Agents of the Freedmen's Bureau in Tennessee, 1865- 1870." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 1#1 (1942): 52-80, 152-170.

• [https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/ecms/education/ Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, articles on education]

{{Tennessee|expanded}}

Category:Education in Tennessee