State government operations are administered by the Tennessee Department of Education.[1] The state Board of Education has 11 members: one from each Congressional district, a student member, and the executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC), who serves as ex-officio nonvoting member.[2]
History
Black schools in 1860s
Protestant evangelical activists from the New England diaspora createda number of organizations to educate the ex-slaves. The Western Freedmen's Aid Commission in Cincinnati formed in January 1863. Its goal was to set up schools for freed slaves in Union-controlled districts in the western states. It worked closely with the federal government's Freedman's Bureau, whose Educational Division played a crucial role. By 1865, 123 white teachers provided manual and domestic training as well as academic instruction. There were 1,949 students in Memphis and over 300 in Clarksville. In 1866 the Freedman Bureau official covering Kentucky and Tennessee reported 75 schools with 264 teachers and 14,800 pupils, not counting independent. schools. in Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville. The Freedman's Bureau provided the school buildings and the Commission provided the teachers, typically young women from the New England diaspora, along with some Northern Blacks. While the Union Army had conquered enemy forces, these teachers believed they had a more important mission: to enlighten and change the Southern mindset. Another goal was to establish political equality for Black people. The schools had an all-Black student body, but a significant number of these Northern educators believed that integrating schools was the only way to achieve these conditions. Reverend D. Burt, the Bureau’s superintendent of education, was a prominent advocate for this cause.[3][4][5][6] Freedman Bureau and religious funds help establish leadership schools at the high school level to train Black teachers. Over the years they added college level programs. Fisk University was the most famous; others included Central Tennessee College at Nashville, Nashville Normal and Theological Institute, and LeMoyne Normal Institute in Memphis. [7]
Public and private schools
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.[1] The state also has many private schools.[8]
The state enrolls approximately 1 million K–12 students in 137 districts.[9] In 2021, the four-year high school graduation rate was 88.7%, a decrease of 1.2% from the previous year.[10] According to the most recent data, Tennessee spends $9,544 per student, the 8th lowest in the nation.[11]
In January 1952, the University of Tennessee was the first major southern university to admit blacks.[15]
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.[16] 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.[16] The program has also received national attention, with multiple states having since created similar programs modeled on the Tennessee Promise.[17]
Tennessee has 107 private institutions.[18]Vanderbilt University in Nashville is consistently ranked as one of the nation's leading research institutions.[19] Nashville is often called the "Athens of the South" due to its many colleges and universities.[20] Tennessee is also home to six historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).[21]
↑ Alrutheus Ambush Taylor, The Negro in Tennessee, 1865-1880 (1941) pp. 168–204,.
↑ Paul David Phillips, " A history of the Freedman's Bureau in Tennessee" (PhD dissertation, Vanderbilt University; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 1964. 6501813) pp.176–276. Online at academic libraries.
↑ Bobby L. Lovett, "A History of the Freedman's Bureau in Tennessee." (1980): pp.224–227.
↑ Robert Charles Morris, Reading, 'Riting, and Reconstruction: The Education of Freedmen in the South, 1861–1870 (U of Chicago Press, 1981).
↑ Kreyling, Christine M; Paine, Wesley; Warterfield, Charles W; Wiltshire, Susan Ford (1996). Classical Nashville: Athens of the South. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. ISBN0-585-13200-3.
Baker, A. Paige, and Dengke Xu. "The Measure of Education: A Review of the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System." (1995) 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. 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) online.
Merriam, Lucius Salisbury. Higher education in Tennessee (US Government Printing Office, 1893) 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. 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. online
Race
Fleming, Cynthia Griggs. "The development of Black Education in Tennessee, 1865-1920" (PhD dissertation, Duke University, 1977) 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+ 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. 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) online
McGehee, C. Stuart. "E. 0. Tade, Freedmen's Education, and the Failure of Reconstruction in Tennessee." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 43 (1984): 378-380. online
Phillips, Paul David. "Education of Blacks in Tennessee During Reconstruction, 1865-1870." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 46.2 (1987): 98-109. online
Paul David Phillips, " A history of the Freedman's Bureau in Tennessee" (PhD dissertation, Vanderbilt University; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 1964. 6501813) pp.176–276. Online at academic libraries.
Raffel, Jeffrey. Historical dictionary of school segregation and desegregation: The American experience (Greenwood, 1998) 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) 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. 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. 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) 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) online
Primary sources
Eaton, John. First Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Tennessee, Ending Thursday, October 7th, 1869 (1869) 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.
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