GRANTEE ABSTRACT 

Tennessee
 

Overview 

The State of Tennessee here details an 

ambitious and achievable goal to partner with a 

Consortium of Local Educational Agencies in 

Shelby County, including the districts 

responsible for all schools in the City of 

Memphis, and Metropolitan Nashville Public 

Schools (MNPS), to expand High-Quality PreKindergarten in their communities. 

Project Objectives and Activities 

The primary objectives are to substantially 

expand access to pre-K in these communities 

and to ensure 100 percent of state preschool 

programs in these communities meet the 

definition of High Quality Preschool Programs 

put forth in the grant. In addition to opening new 

seats, we will invest in quality, including 

professional development at the state level and 

an innovative coaching program in Nashville. 

Proposed Project Outcomes 

Federal funds will pay for 1,400 new highquality pre-K seats and improvements to 3,478 

more new and existing seats. By the end of the 

grant period, when these funds are combined 

with local matching funds, more than 5,000 

children every year, representing more than 10 

percent of our Eligible Child population 

statewide, will be in seats funded through this 

program. In addition, we have ambitious goals 

for quality, including that 75 percent of students 

in participating classrooms will enter 

Kindergarten ready to learn. 

Lead Agency 

Tennessee Department of Education 

Year 1 Federal Award Amount 

$17,500,000 

Plan Period 

January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2018 

Preschool Development Grants will support 

states to build, develop, and expand voluntary, 

high-quality preschool programs for children 

from low- and moderate-income families. 

There are two types of grants. 

Development Grants are for states that 

currently serve less than 10 percent of fouryear-olds and have not received a Race to the 

Top – Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) 

grant. 

Expansion Grants are for states that 

currently serve 10 percent or more of fouryear-olds or have received an RTT-ELC grant. 

Our two Subgrantees are the largest and 

highest-need communities in our state, but both 

have made extending and expanding highquality pre-K a major priority and have built the 

requisite local stakeholder networks to sustain 

this effort after the grant period. During the 

grant period alone, matching investments and 

commitments from the local networks in both 

TN Abstract 2 communities—local government, 

philanthropy, and the private sector—this 

program will commit a total of more than $109 

million in federal, state, local, and private funds 

and in-kind support to a target of opening 2,230 

new high-quality preschool programs, and 

improving a total of 2,958 existing seats. 

This abstract was submitted as part of Tennessee’s Preschool Development Grant Application. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- 

 

EXPANSION GRANTEE: TENNESSEE
 

This project is building on a strong base of 

investment in both delivering pre-K and 

improving quality here in Tennessee; we are 

working not only to get more four-year-olds into 

the classroom, but also to ensure they are 

moving towards sustained gains in school 

readiness and achievement in elementary 

school. This work has been underway since the 

passage of the Voluntary Pre-K for Tennessee 

Act in 2005 that today serves more than 18,000 

children in our state with more than $87 million 

in state funding. In addition, the Peabody 

Research Institute (PRI) at Vanderbilt University 

in Nashville, one of the leading early-childhood 

education research centers in the United States, 

has been engaged in a comprehensive 

assessment of the quality and effectiveness of 

our VPK program, work that continues today. 

PRI also partners with MNPS in an innovative 

learning center-based research project that is 

examining what teaching and administrative 

techniques actually lead to the best outcomes 

for children. PRI is a partner in this application 

and will extend their expertise in evaluating preK programs to evaluating the effect of these 

new and improved seats on our state's most 

high-need children. 

Thanks to existing state VPK framework, we 

are confident that we can distribute funds to the 

Shelby and MNPS with a minimum of 

administrative costs, and that each Subgrantee 

will efficiently and conscientiously direct the 

sub-granted funds towards bringing a rich, 

effective pre-K experience to the Tennesseans 

and their families who will benefit from it most. 

Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools 

Shelby County Pre-K Consortium 

High Need Communities to be served 

under Tennessee’s Plan 

This abstract was submitted as part of Tennessee’s Preschool Development Grant Application. 2