Founded in 2016, the Tennessee Education Research Alliance (TERA) brought together leaders from Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development and the Tennessee Department of Education to launch one of the first state-level research-practice partnerships aimed at informing education policy and practice. Through TERA, researchers at Vanderbilt and from across the country conduct actionable research, and findings have influenced how policymakers view and shape policies regarding teacher evaluation, school turnaround and school leadership, among other topics.
As TERA approaches its tenth anniversary next year, it has much to celebrate, including its new executive director, Amy Owen, MLAS'12, MPP'14, and the legacy of former executive director, Laura Booker, MPP'08, PhD'14, as well as the enduring influence of the Tennessee Educator Survey and growing partnerships to improve educator labor markets, school leadership and student mental health outcomes.
Given TERA's productivity, the Peabody Journal of Education dedicated its spring issue exclusively to TERA scholarship, and on October 23, TERA hosted its second annual research symposium with the Tennessee Department of Education.
Welcoming Amy Owen
In August, TERA welcomed Owen as its third executive director to continue to lead its long-standing partnership with the Tennessee Department of Education and to expand on partnerships across the state with individual school districts, advocacy organizations, and other state agencies that seek to make a difference for children through evidence-based policies and practices.
"TERA is such a respected partner in state policy and practice circles," Owen said. "I am excited to continue to build onto its legacy and reputation."
Owen has a rich and varied background in education policy, research and practice. A former social studies teacher in North Carolina and Tennessee, she has spent her career working across classrooms, state government and national policy organizations to improve education systems and outcomes. Before joining TERA, Owen held key leadership roles at the Tennessee State Board of Education and the Tennessee Department of Education, where she led research studies that directly influenced state legislation and policy. Her work included leading stakeholder engagement to revise Tennessee's K-12 academic standards and redesigning the state's accountability dashboard for educator preparation programs. Nationally, Owen has led policy analysis teams at the Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd), where she focused on teacher policy and ethical implications of digital learning and generative AI.
"Amy brings many years of experience at the intersection of research and policy with an eye toward making research accessible and relevant to decision makers," said Jason Grissom, Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Public Policy and Education and faculty director of TERA. "She is deeply respected across the Tennessee education policy landscape and will empower us to further elevate TERA's impact."
Owen succeeded Laura Booker as executive director, who led TERA for three and a half years and now serves as a TERA research affiliate. Under Booker's leadership, TERA strengthened education data systems, expanded partnerships with school districts and other stakeholders, developed strategies for communicating research findings to a range of audiences and diversified funding streams. As an almost exclusively grant-funded organization, TERA and its research affiliates have received more than $25 million in federal, state and non-profit grants.
"Laura led TERA through a period of significant transition, helping to create new partnerships and new opportunities for funding our work," Grissom said. "She also thought a lot about how we reach non-academic audiences by sharing findings from the Tennessee Educator Survey and other research in ways that empower the work of administrators, teachers, policymakers and others interested in improving student outcomes."
The Tennessee Educator Survey
TERA grew out of the Tennessee Consortium for Research Evaluation (TNCRED), a prior collaboration with the state that evaluated Race to the Top initiatives during the Obama Administration. As part of these evaluations, TNCRED developed the Tennessee Educator Survey in 2012. Since 2016, TERA has partnered with the Tennessee Department of Education to produce the annual survey, allowing all public-school teachers, administrators and certified staff to give feedback on education policies and practices in Tennessee.
The Tennessee Department of Education and TERA collaborate to determine survey topics and design and
