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The experimental evaluation of the "Tools of the Mind Pre-K Curriculum" described in this report was designed to examine the effectiveness of the "Tools of the Mind" ("Tools") curriculum for enhancing children's self-regulation skills and their academic preparation for kindergarten when compared to the usual prekindergarten curricula in use in the school system. In order to assess the long-term impacts of "Tools" on student academic achievement and self-regulation outcomes, students were followed into kindergarten and first grade. Participating classrooms were also observed three times during the prekindergarten year using multiple measures designed to capture implementation fidelity as well as child and teacher behaviors in the classroom. The project was fortunate to have participants from Franklin Special School District, Lebanon Special School District, Wilson County School District, and Cannon County School District in Tennessee as well as Guilford County Schools and Alamance-Burlington School System in North Carolina. The evaluation involved two cohorts of children. Cohort 1 (2010-2011) included the four Tennessee school systems and Guilford County Schools in North Carolina and involved children from 60 classrooms ("Tools" = 32) in 45 schools ("Tools" = 25). Cohort 2 (2011-2012) included Alamance-Burlington School System in North Carolina with children from 20 classrooms ("Tools" = 10) in 12 schools ("Tools" = 5). The research design investigated the effectiveness of "Tools," by conducting a longitudinal cluster-randomized experiment to address the questions: (1) Do children in "Tools of the Mind" classrooms improve more in literacy, math, social skills, and exhibit reduced behavior problems during the preschool year than children in "business as usual" comparison classrooms? (2) Do children in "Tools of the Mind" classrooms show greater gains in learning-related self-regulation than children in the comparison classrooms? (3) Are there differential effects of "Tools of the Mind" associated with characteristics of the children? And, (4) Do the effects of participating in a "Tools of the Mind" classroom sustain into kindergarten and first grade? In addition, an extensive battery of observational measures was employed to examine implementation fidelity and other classroom processes that might have mediated the curriculum effects. Overall, the authors found no significant effects of the "Tools of the Mind" curriculum on literacy, language or mathematics achievement when compared to business as usual classrooms whose teachers used a variety of curricular approaches. Similarly, they found no effects on Self-Regulation. Gains in achievement and self-regulation were correlated, r = 0.35. Additional outcomes and future directions are recommended. (Contains 53 tables.) [For "Experimental Evaluation of the Tools of the Mind Pre-K Curriculum. Fidelity of Implementation Technical Report," see ED574843.]

This paper describes Tennessee's progress in implementing a comprehensive and coherent approach to education reform from the time of application through June 30, 2011. In particular, this report highlights key accomplishments over the reporting period in the four reform areas: standards and assessments, data systems to support instruction, great teachers and leaders, and turning around lowest-achieving schools. Tennessee's application for Race to the Top laid out an ambitious education reform agenda at all levels--from the state to the school district to the classroom. The state established equally ambitious goals for improving both teacher and leader effectiveness and student achievement. In the first year of implementation of the Tennessee First to the Top initiatives, the state made modest gains towards achieving those goals. From 2010 to 2011, overall student achievement in the two primary focus areas of the grant, 3rd grade reading and 7th grade math, increased by 2 percentage points and 7 percentage points respectively. The implementation of Tennessee's reform agenda has been complex and not without its challenges, but the state has made significant progress in a number of key areas over the past year. Tennessee has made the most significant progress in the area of great teachers and leaders-specifically the development of a new teacher and principal evaluation system, recruitment initiatives, and strategic compensation plans. The state has also laid the groundwork for significant progress to come in the next year on standards and assessments, data systems, school turnaround and STEM, specifically through initial awareness training for the Common Core standards, planning for an early warning data system, establishing charter schools and a co-management process for the state's Achievement School District, and creating two new STEM platform schools. Local education agencies that are experiencing gains in student achievement are executing on First to the Top plans that support these initiatives and have a comprehensive focus on the state goals. [For the parent document, "Race to the Top Annual Performance Report," see ED529267. For the state summary report, "Race to the Top. Tennessee Report. Year 1: School Year 2010-2011. [State-Specific Summary Report]", see ED529330.]