The Tennessee Department of Education announced the 377 schools across the state that have received the designation as Reward Schools for the 2023/2024 school year.

Public charter schools led the way in the state’s largest school district, accounting for nearly a third of Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ 34 Reward Schools.

One of the key investments in Tennessee’s 2021 special legislative session was the creation of summer learning camps designed to help children overcome pandemic learning losses. The state has continued operating them ever since, and at Wednesday’s state budget hearing, Department of Education Commissioner LIzzette Reynolds made the case for an additional $57.8 million investment.

The Tennessee Department of Education is encouraging high school seniors to take advantage of the state’s free ACT retake opportunities this fall.

Tennessee was the first state in the nation to offer public high school seniors the opportunity to take the ACT two times for free during normal school hours. Students typically take the test once in the spring of their junior year, and then under the program have an opportunity to retake the ACT in the fall of their senior year.

The Tennessee Department of Education announced the finalists for this year’s Tennessee Principal of the Year and Supervisor of the Year awards. In a news release the department said the finalists include three members from each of the state’s Grand Divisions.

House Democrats continued their push for the removal of Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds Tuesday during a discussion about a temporary teaching license bill.Representative Kirk Haston, R-Lobelville, sponsored the bill to allow Tennessee’s Education Commissioner to issue temporary teaching permits for courses that require end-of-course testing. The permits would only be applied for and granted as a last resort for filling vacancies.

Tennessee Democrats continued their push for the resignation of Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds Monday, announcing a bill that would allow lawmakers to impeach her for failing to met the necessary qualifications.Representative Caleb Hemmer, D-Nashville, and Senator Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, are co-sponsoring a bill that would require a Commissioner of Education in Tennessee to reside in the state and provide a process for the legislature to impeach a commissioner for cause.

The House Democratic Caucus called for Tennessee Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynold to resign Monday morning, saying she doesn’t have the necessary qualifications and experience.State law last updated decades ago requires that the Tennessee Department of Education’s commissioner “shall be a person of literary and scientific attainments and of skill and experience in school administration” and “shall also be qualified to teach in the school of the highest standing over which the commissioner has authority.”House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, said an examination of Reynold’s background shows she doesn’t meet these requirements.

When Tennessee lawmakers return to Nashville from this week’s snow delay, fourth-grade retention may very well succeed last year’s heated debate over third-grade retention.Last Wednesday’s discussion in the Senate Education Committee with new Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Lizette Reynolds brought a preview of what that debate may look like.

The Tennessee Department of Education rolled out its much-anticipated School Letter Grades platform Thursday. The system is designed to provide the public with transparency into how well public schools are meeting state expectations by awarding each school with an A through F grade.Parents can use the dashboard to look up the letter grade for each public school in the state.

Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds told state lawmakers there’s no easy way for the state to avoid federal education requirements by simply rejecting federal education dollars.Some Republican lawmakers have expressed an interest in rejecting more than a billion in federal education dollars to avoid complying those requirements and Tennessee General Assembly leaders created a Joint Working Group on Federal Education Funding to evaluate the idea’s feasibility earlier this year. This week members of that group are holding three hearings including one Tuesday morning highlighted by Commissioner Reynolds and her administration. 

When Lizzette Reynolds took over as Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education in late July, she immediately inherited the huge job of deciding how to provide an A through F letter grade to every public school in the state.Thursday, Commissioner Reynolds unveiled exactly how her department plans to do that, through a simple calculation that mostly splits student achievement and student growth equally. 

Parents can now take part in creating a long awaited system that grades how well their child’s school is serving students.The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) invited Tennesseans to participate in in a series of public meetings across the state to create the A through F school grading system.

The number of third-grade students approved to advance to the fourth-grade by appeal grew by 5 percent over the last three weeks of June.The Tennessee Department of Education released final data Wednesday of the appeals process that ended last month for the state’s new Third-Grade Retention Law. The department says 7,812 of the 9,054 students who filed appeals were successful. That 86 percent is higher than the initial data the department released last month, showing an 81 percent successful appeals rate.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee named Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds as the new Commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Education on Monday.Reynolds will succeed Commissioner Penny Schwinn who announced she’s transitioning out of the department on June 1, 2023.