Local Education, News Brandon Paykamian Local Education, News Brandon Paykamian

These Memphis middle and high schools have a new program to boost student literacy

IOTA Community Schools, formerly Green Dot Public Schools, has partnered with Reading Horizons to boost literacy instruction in four Memphis middle and high schools. The partnership brings the Reading Horizons Elevate program, which focuses on foundational reading skills for older learners, to schools like Hillcrest High, Kirby Middle, Wooddale Middle, and Bluff City High. IOTA's Chief Academic Officer, Christina Austin, emphasized the program's goal of better preparing students for college and careers through enhanced reading instruction.

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State Education, State Government Sky Arnold State Education, State Government Sky Arnold

Tennessee Senate passes bill to do away with the Achievement School District

A proposal to shift low-performing schools from Tennessee’s sputtering takeover and turnaround district to other state-approved but locally managed intervention models passed unanimously Monday in the full Senate.The bill, which is awaiting action in the full House, seeks to phase out the Achievement School District, the state’s most ambitious and aggressive school improvement model, by the end of 2025-26 school year.

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Local Education, Nashville Sky Arnold Local Education, Nashville Sky Arnold

Metro Nashville wants to take back control of LEAD Brick Church. The school’s students and parents have other ideas.

Victavia Walls says she made the wrong choice in middle school to temporarily leave LEAD Brick Church for her traditionally zoned Metro Nashville school. Walls says the experience at the new school wasn’t what she hoped for so she transferred back to LEAD the following year.She's among the nearly half a dozen parents and students who shared their experiences to support LEAD Brick Church's effort to remain open as a public charter school.

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Hanley School in Tennessee’s turnaround district will return to MSCS control

For the first time, a charter school in Tennessee’s turnaround district will exit the state program and return to the Memphis district’s management, Memphis-Shelby County Schools announced this week.Hanley School, a K-8 school in Orange Mound, was taken over by the state and placed in the Achievement School District a decade ago to be run by a charter operator.

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