The statewide goals and objectives of Tennessee's plan for educational excellence, the 21st Century Challenge, are outlined in this legislative committee report. The major initiatives under each goal will be implemented within 3 to 4 years. Goals and an example of the several objectives under each goal are: first grade readiness (e.g., require all children to complete kindergarten); primary grades fulfillment (e.g., establish learning centers in urban housing projects to provide homework assistance and counseling for resident children and to provide for family members to learn parenting skills); high standards for student achievement (e.g., formulate specific goals for student achievement on a statewide and system-level basis); school success for disabled and at-risk students (e.g., establish jobs for Tennessee graduates programs and other school-to-work transition training programs for high school students); teaching professional enhancement (e.g., make salaries for starting teachers and the average salaries for all teachers the highest in the southeast and competitive throughout the country); adult literacy attainment (e.g., establish year-round literacy programs with full-time coordinators in each of the states' 95 counties); vocational education relevancy (e.g., integrate solid core of mathematics, sciences, and communications into the vocational curriculum); school district performance standards (e.g., require that local school board members participate in state designated and state conducted in-service training programs); college-ready high school graduates (e.g., establish and maintain college admission standards that include a core of required academic high school courses); fiscal adequacy and accountability assurance (e.g., provide incentive dollars in excess of funding in the basic formula for local school systems fulfilling performance standards); school-based decision making (e.g., focus state and local education policies on outcomes other than on procedures); and curriculum refinement (e.g., "look behind" the label of every course taught in the schools to assure current and future relevancy). The report outlines the agenda for state policy makers and is a strategic plan that is in various stages of planning, pilot testing, and implementation. (LMI)