Frist promotes SCORE education report

Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said the biggest roadblock to college degree attainment in Tennessee is a culture that doesn't value education.

"That tradition of valuing education has just simply not been there, (the attitude) that your happiness, that your fulfillment in life, that your livelihood really does depend on the education you get," he said.

Dr. Frist, chairman and founder of the Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education, or SCORE, spoke to hundreds of high school counselors, K-12 and higher education leaders Tuesday at the 2009 College Access and Success Conference in Chattanooga. The event was sponsored by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and the Public Education Foundation.

Last month, SCORE released its second and final report, "A Roadmap to Success," outlining four main goals and more than 60 specific recommendations for everyone from students to school boards.

The report aims to push Tennessee's education system from "the bottom of the barrel" to No. 1 in the Southeast in five years, Dr. Frist said.

Hamilton County Board of Education member Linda Mosley, who attended Dr. Frist's speech along with other school board members, said she appreciates SCORE and its push for educational excellence.

She said she hopes the citizen-led group's steps will help Hamilton County educators form a plan to deal with the poor graduation rates highlighted in the recent Tennessee Report Card. The district's graduation rate has dropped from 75.1 in 2007 to 70.9 percent, according to the latest report card.

"Their goals are critical for our success moving forward," she said. "That's a mammoth goal for us."

SCORE plans to announce an action plan Monday, with recommendations to improve school leadership, teacher training, use of education statistics and advocacy, he said.

The group hopes to launch a marketing campaign throughout the state intended to help change Tennesseans' attitudes toward educational attainment, officials said.

SCORE also may propose legislation that would require achievement test scores be given to teachers in a more timely fashion, officials said.

"I am a surgeon," Dr. Frist said. "I like to cut and fix and move with it."

By 2018, the nation's work force will require 67 percent of people to have either a bachelor's or associate's degree, and the work of high school counselors is critical to graduating students who are ready for college, he said.

"It is hand holding. It's hard. It's painful," Dr. Frist said. "But our schools have to produce students who can enter college."