Program Overview

TAS (Teaching All Students) is an initiative that is focused on ensuring the rights of students with complex needs, specifically: 

1. The right to be heard  

2. The right to be valued 

3. The right to be taught, challenged, and engaged 

Additionally, students with complex needs should be given meaningful, rigorous, grade-level, standards-aligned instruction to achieve their postsecondary goals.  

Therefore, the two goals of the TAS initiative are: 

Goal 1: Increase inclusive opportunities for students with complex needs to reduce the achievement gap, resulting in more students participating in the general assessment, thus reducing the statewide alternate assessment participation rate to 1%. 

Goal 2: Increase the graduation rate and enrollment in postsecondary education for students with complex needs (e.g., inclusive higher education, technical colleges, and community colleges) and competitive integrated employment, thereby reducing the gap in employment of individuals with complex needs as compared to all other individuals by 5%. 

High schools that participate in TAS can engage in highly requested technical assistance, training, and coaching to support the vision and mission of the school to increase learning for all students with complex needs. In addition, mini-grants will be available to support implementation of the work within their school. Each school team will consist of a school administrator, general education teacher, special education teacher, and the district’s special education supervisor. 

CLEE’s Role in TAS 

Project Management: CLEE provides project management for TAS by providing programmatic oversight, implementing supports, paying stipends, facilitating ongoing TAS partner meetings, overseeing evaluation subcontractor, providing fiscal accountability for the grant, and providing ongoing collaboration around priorities.  

Event Planning: Summer weeklong professional development for all TAS cohorts serves as a catalyst for learning and change within TAS. CLEE provides all event planning and management within this project to ensure a seamless experience for all participants. Our comprehensive event planning services include securing training sites, negotiating contracts with hosting venues, managing registration platforms, handling printing and material procurement, coordinating lodging arrangements, and ensuring participant accommodations for participants are in place.

TAS’s Impact

To create a more inclusive community throughout high schools in Tennessee, by focusing on the communication barriers and how to overcome them, student communication opportunities, and high academic goals matching the student’s skill levels.  TAS benefits include, but are not limited to, the building of a community of understanding, diversity, and inclusion resulting in students with complex needs spending their educational career outside of the typical Self-Contained Classroom and with their peers without significant needs.

Teaching ALL Students (TAS) programs are currently available in the following Tennessee counties (counties in orange have programs; the darker the orange, the greater the number of programs in that county).