By August 1, all K-5 teachers and instructional leaders in Tennessee who need to renew or advance their teaching license are required to take an online literacy skills test or complete at least one state-approved professional development course in literacy skills.
According to new rules passed by the State Board of Education in June as mandated by the 2021 Literacy Success Act, the literacy skills assessment is not proctored and can be taken multiple times, but it carries a minimum required score of 80% or higher to renew or advance a license.
“We urge all practitioners affected by the new rules to take an online assessment or complete a training course by August 1,” said TEA President Tanya Coats. “While we’ve received no indication from the state department of education that a teacher’s license will be immediately suspended if the new requirements aren’t met by August 1, but failure to comply may jeopardize your career in the future as the department gathers more data from the first year of the program’s implementation.”
The state’s online skills training called Reading 360 Literacy contains 5 training modules comprised of 17 lessons that lead to a summative online assessment. While it currently affects educators teaching grades K-5 and instructional leaders, the department plans to add additional licensure categories to the list of teachers who need to complete the training or literacy skills assessment by 2024.
“The foundational literacy skills assessment was created to test graduates of education colleges and to measure the effectiveness of teacher prep programs,” said Beth Brice, TEA manager of Instructional Advocacy. “Veteran teachers may now take the literacy skills assessment test instead of mandatory professional development.
The assessment consists of 25 questions on knowledge of foundational literacy skills instruction. While the department set an 80% passing score on the assessment for educators to meet the requirements of the Literacy
Success Act, we know several educators have taken the test multiple times, ultimately meeting the required threshold.”
TEA has compiled a list of resources to navigate the new literacy skills requirements at TNEA.org/literacy-skills.
“All affected teachers are encouraged to contact their UniServ Coordinator with questions related to the new literacy skills requirements or if they have questions about renewing their license after August 1,” Coats said.
