Kalen Sy learned the value of education at an early age.His grandmother and mother repeatedly stressed the importance of education, and it charted a path forward.“I was like, 'I'm gonna go to college, I'm (going to) successfully complete college, get something and obtain something out of it other than just a piece of paper and a handshake.' I wanted to get something out of it. So, yes, my mom, single parent mom, she really wanted my brother and (me) to just be something great. She always wanted us to value education and soak up education and anything that we were doing in a public school. Because like my grandma always told me, she said, after high school you have to pay for every little thing, even a pencil is not free,” said Sy.

Metro Council approved a 6 percent cost of living increase for Metro Nashville employees Tuesday night, but teachers won’t be receiving the same amount. The council’s $3 billion substitute budget only included the 4 percent cost of living raise for Metro Nashville Public School employees that Mayor John Cooper proposed last month.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools paid a lawn care vendor more than its contract allowed, lost some lawn equipment to theft, and paid an employee for days they didn’t work.The lapses surfaced in a regular independent financial audit of the district for the 2021-22 school year and were detailed in a report shared with state officials in January.

Members of the Williamson County Schools Board of Education voted 8 to 2 to keep five challenged books on the shelves Monday night.Those books include Speak, Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Field Guide to the North American Teenager, Where the Crawdads Sing, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The books contain a common theme of the main characters being outcasts based on their own personal experiences and earlier this year, a district committee recommended against removing them from Williamson County School libraries.“A book that, in my opinion, makes a teenager kind of dive into and recognize that everybody is different and people at based upon their own personal experiences is a valuable piece of literature that’s a whole lot deeper than just the subtext or the specific sexual content, or bullying content, or drug content that’s being called out here,” said board member Eliot Mitchell.

Memphis-Shelby County School Board members voted in a major salary increase for teachers in the district’s 2023/2024 proposed budget.Under the spending plan, the district would increase the starting base pay from $42,000 to $47,000 for new teachers. This increase comes from an additional $27.3 million investment in teacher salaries and a new teacher salary schedule.

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Director Dr. Adrienne Battle unveiled the district’s new plan to keep students safe during Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting.Battle says that plan involves strong collaboration with the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) to help implement safety protocols and prepare faculty, staff, and students for different scenarios.“As we know, the impetus for this current discussion was a tragic shooting that took place in our community at the Covenant School which took the lives of three young children, three administrators, and the shooter. My heart goes out to the victims’ families, and we stand with the Covenant community in making sure they have the tools and the resources needed for the long road to recovery,” said Battle.

School board members with Memphis-Shelby County Schools sent a letter to parents Wednesday to assure them that the turbulent search for a new school superintendent is making "significant progress." 

Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) is down one school board member and is no closer to finding a new superintendent following Tuesday evening’s special called meeting.During a sometimes-heated discussion on the superintendent search, Vice Chair Sheleah Harris announced she’s stepping down from her elected position.“I’ve been on this board for three years and I feel like I have served well. And I’ll continue to serve, to advocate until I leave this earth. But at this point, this is my last board meeting. I appreciate the support, my colleagues, I’m choosing to step down from this board. Like I said, I’ll continue to advocate, I’ll continue to serve, but this is the highest level of ignorance I have ever been a part of and for my own health, I just can’t be a part of it anymore,” said Harris.

The candidates vying to become Nashville’s next mayor finally answered a question about how they plan to improve education.During Monday’s televised debate, Fox-17 anchor Scott Couch asked candidates how they’d approach struggling test scores if elected.“Metro Schools get the lion’s share of every dollar in the Metro budget, yet our students continue to score below the state average on standardized tests. What do you think the answer is to improve student performance?” asked Couch.Previous televised debates have largely ignored school issues despite independent polling that found more than 21% of likely voters consider candidate’s positions on education to be the most important quality they’re looking for.

Five people who were banned from Memphis-Shelby County Schools buildings and property have filed a federal lawsuit against the district, claiming officials violated their constitutional right to access public meetings.The people banned are activists in Memphis who have called on the school board to increase transparency and integrity in its search for a new superintendent.

Representative Justin J. Pearson (D-Memphis) joined four members of the so-called “School Board Five” in a protest Friday outside the Memphis-Shelby County School Board retreat.Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) banned the five community activists last month following disruptions during a decision to put the district superintendent search on hold.That decision has since faced pushback from the Memphis community, including members of the activists’ families and friends. The “School Board Five” includes local activists Amer Sherman, LJ Abraham and Damon Morris, former teacher’s union president Tikelia Rucker, and former school board candidate Rachel Spriggs.Multiple board members have since expressed a desire to meet with the activists and lift the ban and Board Chair Althea Greene thanked Representative Pearson for helping move that process forward.

About 1 in 5 Memphis Shelby-County Schools third graders who took a state retest in reading last month succeeded in earning an easier path to fourth grade — some 1,200 students in all.

Knox County Schools (KCS) Superintendent Jon Rysewyk unveiled a new strategic plan at Monday’s school board meeting to improve schools in the district’s Region 5 in west and north Knoxville.The five-year plan dubbed the “Region 5 Way,” intends to transform the outcomes of students by establishing a clear, aligned mission for excellence throughout the region.

Knox County Schools (KCS) Superintendent Jon Rysewyk unveiled a new strategic plan at Monday’s school board meeting to improve schools in the district’s Region 5 in west and north Knoxville.The five-year plan dubbed the “Region 5 Way,” intends to transform the outcomes of students by establishing a clear, aligned mission for excellence throughout the region.

Games have a way of expanding the world around us by introducing worldbuilding, writing, art, and fantasy.For Knowledge Academies senior James Loc, the game Skyrim expanded his world and his future.“I love Skyrim,” wrote James Loc in his Choice Champions Scholarship essay. “I remember back in 2012 coming home from school, turning on the television, and spending the rest of my day immersed in a world of might, magic, and dragons. I loved how there was an entire universe held within the television, and I mean literally. Like many children who grew up playing video games, or consuming any form of entertainment, I truly believed that everything shown actually existed somewhere in the universe, or at least inside the television. I clearly remember peeking into the speakers of the television every time I shut it off, hoping to see the characters or creatures inside unwinding and relaxing after a session of quests and adventures, all to no avail.”Loc was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Asian immigrant parents who came to the states to make a better life for themselves and their family. Two months later, the family decided to escape the cold weather and move to Antioch, Tennessee where Loc eventually enrolled in public school.

Members of the Memphis-Shelby County School Board admit they don’t expect to be able to name a permanent superintendent by the start of the 2023/2024 school year.“We, unfortunately, will not have a superintendent by the first day of school,” said board member Joyce Coleman.Coleman’s comments came during Thursday night’s board retreat lead by former two-term board member and education advocate Tomeka Hart Wigginton. Members are utilizing the retreat to continue reevaluating the superintendent search and decide on the qualities and priorities each board member wants.Board members discussed multiple priorities including a focus on the budget, sustainability, literacy, and parental support. The superintendent qualities members discussed prioritizing included political savvy, community advocacy, financial knowledge, and the ability to be a collaborator.

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) reported a welcome increase in scores from last week’s retake of the English language arts section of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP).More than 20 percent of Nashville third-graders improved their scores on the retake including 11 percent who achieved proficiency and 10 percent who moved from “below” proficient to “approaching” proficiency. Students who tested proficient no longer need summer school and/or tutoring to advance to fourth grade under the state’s Third-Grade Retention Law.The Tennessee General Assembly passed the new law in 2021 to ensure students who showed a need for additional support in reading on the TCAP in April receive it before being promoted to fourth grade.The retake test is one component students who tested below proficiency on the TCAP can use to advance to the fourth-grade along with summer school programs and/or fall tutoring.  Some students are exempt from the retention law because of a disability or other factors and others will qualify for an appeal from retention.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) is facing pushback for banning five public commenters from all district property.The district made the decision to ban former teacher’s union president Tikelia Rucker, former school board candidate Rachel Spriggs, and local activists Amber Sherman, LJ Abraham, and Damon Morris following disruptions at the special meeting held May 9 when the board announced that the superintendent search will be put on hold.

Administrators with Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) say parents should learn today if their third-graders need to attend summer school and/or tutoring in the fall.The district announced that it plans to send an email to parents of children who took the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) English language arts retest last week that explains whether the child scored proficient and what options are available if they didn’t meet that threshold.

A Tennessee school district has joined a growing list of school systems across the nation that are suing major social media companies like TikTok and YouTube over a crisis in student mental health.