Despite promising scores in this year’s Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP), Tennessee students continue to show the same signs of learning loss as their peers across the country in national testing.Tennessee's National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores released today mirror a historic national drop in the first testing following the pandemic.  While students in the Volunteer state are roughly at the national average in math proficiency and just under that in reading, proficiency in both subjects dropped to their lowest levels since 2011 with significant drops for students of color, English learners, and students with disabilities.

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 Public Charter School Commission approved the Tennessee Nature Academy in a 5-3 vote, overturning MNPS's rejection. Several other charter school appeals were denied.

This year’s Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) results were rightfully cheered for the gains Tennessee students made, but it’s important to keep in mind achievement gaps still persist.This is especially true for students who are English Language Learners (ELL). These students scored 15 points lower than the state average in English Language Arts and 10 points lower in Math.As our state looks for solutions to the inequities that create these achievement gaps, we can learn much from the model that’s currently serving Memphis students at Compass Community Schools.

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.

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.

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.

Supporters of the Tennessee Volunteer Military Academy believe their public charter school model is the solution to the school to jail pipeline too many students are following.The proposed school would offer more than 400 hundred 6th through 12th graders in Shelby County the opportunity to attend a free full-time military academy beginning next year and additionally gain experience with leadership and enhanced career technical education with a first responder focus.

Nashville ranked 14th in the country in the number of businesses that reported moderate or large price increases in a new poll from LendingTree. Tennessee, meanwhile, ranked 11th among all states.The report, based on the U.S. Census Bureau Small Business Pulse Survey, said that 80.2% of businesses in Nashville reported those increases.

The Binghampton neighborhood in Memphis is a community with a diverse population that’s struggling with poverty.Nora Jendoubi says her organization Maslow Development Inc. had both in mind when designing their proposal to establish the Binghampton Community School.The proposed public charter school would offer an International Baccalaureate education that mirrors the diversity of the area’s immigrant community, and the school would anchor the organization’s Lighthouse Project to provide other family needs like affordable housing, healthcare, and workforce development opportunities.

Michelle McKissack, the recently reelected chairwoman of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board, announced Monday she is mulling a run to become the city’s next mayor.McKissack, who has represented District 1 since 2018 and was elected chair of the board in 2021, will on Tuesday announce an exploratory committee for a campaign to succeed Mayor Jim Strickland, whose term expires at the end of 2023.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools more than doubled its number of schools on Tennessee’s list of bottom-performing schools, while schools from several rural districts made the list for the first time.The state education department on Monday flagged 101 schools in 12 districts as so-called priority schools, meaning they were deemed academically in the bottom 5% in the 2021-22 school year.

The chair of the Memphis Shelby County Schools board wants newly elected member Keith Williams to relinquish his post as head of the district’s biggest teacher’s union, warning that his roles on both bodies pose a potential conflict of interest.

This fall a little-known state board could play a huge role in expanding school choice options for parents across the state.The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission will decide the appeals of thirteen potential new public charter schools who all were previously denied by their local school boards.

Fresh from being named Tennessee’s Teacher of the Year for 2022-23, Memphis second-grade educator Melissa Collins credits her family and 21 years in the classroom for preparing her to represent a profession that badly needs recharging.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray, who was under investigation over claims that he abused his power and violated district policies, resigned Tuesday under an agreement with the school board that formally ends the inquiry.At a special meeting Tuesday, the nine-member board approved an agreement that will give Ray a severance package equivalent to 18 months’ salary — about $480,000— plus some other benefits. All members voted in favor, except for Stephanie Love, who did not vote.

As KIPP Memphis celebrates its 20th anniversary, CEO Antonio Burt thinks the charter network is on its way to “finding our sweet spot” in Memphis’ changing educational landscape after the pandemic.“I think it’s a time of great opportunity for us — a time for us to say, 20 years later, we’re now stronger than ever,” said Burt, who is beginning his first full school year after becoming CEO in November. “We look forward to taking that momentum and furthering and continuing to bolster our plan.”