Memphis-Shelby County Schools showed some of the country’s sharpest declines in math and reading scores on the test known as the “nation’s report card.”Results from the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, illustrate the pandemic’s devastating effect on learning in Tennessee’s largest school district, where most students are Black and come from low-income families who were hit hardest by the pandemic, and where waves of COVID infections led to prolonged stretches of remote learning.

For the second time in six weeks, a Memphis-Shelby County Schools official has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into an employee complaint.The nature of the complaint against Yolanda Martin, the district’s chief of human resources, was not immediately clear Friday afternoon. The district declined to comment on the investigation, but interim Superintendent Toni Williams said in a statement that the district “investigates all employee complaints as we continue our ongoing efforts to emphasize integrity in all MSCS functions.”

The Tennessee Nature Academy aims to be Middle-Tennessee’s first nature-based public charter school but it’s a different type of green that could cause challenges at next week’s appeal hearing with the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.Commission Executive Director Tess Stovall issued a recommendation against the academy’s appeal, citing a lack of documentation about how the school would acquire the necessary funds to operate and its proposed reliance on per pupil revenue by year three of operation.

Jeffrey Stubblefield didn’t spend his summer break like most elementary school children.  Then again, Stubblefield is no ordinary fourth grader.From May 31 to August 8 this summer Stubblefield spent an astonishing 30,150 minutes reading.  That adds up to roughly seven hours a day with a book.

After three years at Germantown High School, Maya Logan has come to think of it as home — a place where she’s made friends who are more like family, that has helped her learn and grow in immeasurable ways. She dreams of being at graduation in a couple of years, surrounded by the friends and educators who shaped her high school experience.But that dream remains at risk if Memphis-Shelby County Schools and the neighboring Germantown Municipal School District can’t reach an agreement on the future of her school.

The Tennessee Charter Commission overturned MNPS’s decision to reject KIPP Nashville’s applications, approving two new schools in Antioch.

Three Memphians have thrown their hat in the ring to fill the District 7 seat on the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board vacated by Miska Clay Bibbs.Clay Bibbs had represented District 7’s southeast Memphis neighborhoods such as Parkway Village and Oakhaven since 2014, but she left the board in August after winning election to the Shelby County Commission, which will appoint her replacement.

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board has delayed the start of its search for a new superintendent to replace Joris Ray, so that its newest members can get up to speed on the process.The board initially planned to discuss the search during its monthly committee meetings Tuesday. But newly appointed board Chair Althea Greene said she decided to push the conversation off for several weeks.

On Wednesday, the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission will decide whether Nashville families in Antioch and Southeast Davidson County have new high-quality options for their children’s education.The commission is deciding appeals from KIPP Nashville and Saber STEM Academy to open public charter schools in the area. Those appeals received distinctively different reactions from the commission’s executive director.

The proposed Academy of the Arts charter school aims to provide a school choice option for future Ford employees in Fayette County, but faces concerns from the local school board over diversity requirements and curriculum.

Supporters of school choice received another setback to efforts to establish a high-quality public charter school in Tennessee's largest city without one.Friday afternoon, Tennessee Public Charter School Commission Executive Director Tess Stovall issued her recommendation to the full commission to deny Oxton Academy's appeal to establish a public charter school serving at risk students and recent dropouts in Montgomery County.

American Classical Education withdrew its appeals for proposed charter schools connected to Hillsdale College after local districts rejected them and public outcry ensued.

The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission received no written comments from the public in opposition to the four charter school appeals members are hearing from Nashville.Commissioners are planning to decide the appeals for KIPP Southeast Nashville College Prep Elementary, KIPP Southeast Nashville College Prep Middle, the Tennessee Nature Academy, and Saber STEM Academy of Nashville later this month.

Tennessee is celebrating six school districts for their work to accelerate student learning following the pandemic.The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) is recognizing Elizabethton City Schools, Cocke County Schools, Union County Schools, Germantown Municipal Schools, Lenoir City Schools, and Cheatham County Schools for their use of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding and their efforts towards student achievement with the TN ALL Corps program.

Tennesseans overwhelmingly opposed Hillsdale-linked charter schools in written comments, criticizing curriculum and concerns over government overreach. The state commission will vote on the applications in October.