A judicial panel sided with the state on Wednesday and dismissed remaining legal claims raised in two lawsuits challenging Tennessee’s private school voucher law.The judges ruled that Metropolitan Nashville and Shelby County governments, along with a group of parents who oppose vouchers, have no legal standing to challenge Tennessee’s 2019 Education Savings Account law, which provides taxpayer money to pay toward private school tuition.

A new state law requires Tennessee’s Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission to “issue guidance” for local school districts to use when reviewing whether books in a school library are appropriate for children.Commission Member Laurie Cardoza-Moore argued the board should go beyond that at last week’s workshop meeting.

The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) released the 2020-2022 Accelerating Tennessee Report this week to showcase the steps that have been taken to improve public education in the volunteer state.The report details how Tennessee has been able to implement and execute academic initiatives and strategically invest in schools, students, and faculty since 2020. The state supports nearly one million students, over 70,000 educators and over 1,800 schools across 147 districts.“I am deeply proud of the work Tennessee’s districts, school leaders and educators, students, elected officials, community partners, families and department staff have done strategically and with a common goal in mind—achieving the best for ALL students,” said Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn.The report details some of the key steps Tennessee took following the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure students received a high-quality education during remote learning. This includes the Reading 360 and Tennessee All Corps initiatives Tennessee launched in 2021 to give students the best chance at recovering from pandemic learning loss with additional resources to ensure they are reading at grade-level.“One-on-one tutoring provides individualized assistance to get our students not only back on track academically but on a successful path for their future,” said Cameron Sexton, Speaker of the House, Tennessee General Assembly. “We all want and continue to work towards the same outcome in education- every student that graduates from a Tennessee school does so with the skills and opportunities for success in life.”TDOE additionally focused on providing each Tennessee student with the proper tools and skills they need to succeed post-graduation. The Innovative School Models initiative allows school districts to reimagine the middle and high school experience to improve student readiness. The initiative was launched in 2022 with a $500 million investment from the state.“Instead of asking all students to conform to one traditional educational experience, we are creating individual pathways for students to achieve success,” said Dr. Annette Tudor, Director of Schools, Bristol City Schools.Tennessee became the first state in the nation to launch a Grow Your Own initiative, which creates a pathway for Tennessee students to become Tennessee teachers, a direct response to combat nation-wide and local teacher shortages.In addition to these initiatives, Governor Bill Lee introduced legislation to implement a student-based funding formula, replacing a decades-old, outdated formula that no longer served the state productively. The Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement Act brings an additional $1 billion in annual investment, revolutionizing the way the state supports its students and provides them with necessary resources.“What lies ahead is a continued commitment and focus on closing achievement gaps, strategically investing in proven initiatives, and accelerating student academic achievement,” said Commissioner Schwinn. “The department will continue to prioritize transparency and access to actionable data and resources for Tennessee students, families, and stakeholders to continue partnering in this essential work.”

The Tennessee Department of Education is recognizing the work its Tennessee Teacher Apprenticeship program is doing during this week’s 8th Annual National Apprenticeship Week.The program incorporates the state’s Grow Your Own model and was the first registered apprenticeship program for teaching in the country. The Grow Your Own initiative aims to set a new path for the educator profession and help address teacher shortages.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee promised to continue his educational priorities after comfortably winning a second term.Governor Lee won nearly 65 percent of the vote to Democrat Jason Martin’s nearly 33 percent Tuesday night.  It’s an improvement over Lee’s victory four years ago where he won with 59 percent of the vote.

Tennessee students are receiving additional help this year with the extra expenses that come with attending college.tnAchieves says it has distributed more than a million dollars in tnAchieves COMPLETE grants to eligible students since the program launched statewide in August.Under the program, students can apply for up to $1,000 per semester for college expenses that are not covered by the Tennessee Promise scholarship. tnAchieves COMPLETE grants can be used for computers, tools, textbooks, transportation, food insecurity or other hardships.

29.5 percent of respondents in a new poll of East Tennessee residents cited education and children as the topic they want elected leaders to focus on. That’s 6 points higher than the 23.2 percent who listed price increases and inflation in the poll.If the rest of the state is as focused on education as those polled, voters will have plenty to consider win the Governor’s race between Governor Bill Lee and Democrat Jason Martin.

In a televised debate on a wide range of topics, Democratic Tennessee House District 18 Candidate Gregory Kaplan proposed a drastic change that would put the future of every Tennessee public charter school, and their more than 30 thousand students, in question.Following a question about whether Tennessee needs more public charter

Tennessee received national recognition Tuesday for its work to help all students fulfill their requirements for college admission.ACT, Inc. awarded the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) with its inaugural ACT State Equity and Access Champion Award, which celebrates the state’s commitment to postsecondary access and its standing leading the nation in ACT access.

In yet another data point on missed learning during the pandemic, ACT scores from this year’s high school graduates dropped to their lowest level in three decades, according to a report released Wednesday.Exam-takers averaged 19.8 out of a possible 36 total points on the college admissions test, the first time since 1991 that nationwide results dipped below 20. 

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.

National testing data released this morning reveals severe damage inflicted on student math and reading performance, reaffirming COVID-19’s ongoing educational toll. Even as some states have shown evidence of academic recovery this year, federal officials cautioned that learning lost to the pandemic will not be easily restored.Eighth-grade math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the “Nation’s Report Card,” fell by a jarring eight points since the test was last administered in 2019, while fourth-grade scores dropped by five points; both are the largest math declines ever recorded on the test. In reading, both fourth- and eighth-grade scores fell by three points, leaving them statistically unchanged since 1992, when NAEP was first rolled out.

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.

Gov. Bill Lee and his Democratic challenger, Dr. Jason Martin, agree that Tennessee students need timely and relevant vocational training opportunities, but the two candidates for governor don’t concur on much else when it comes to K-12 education.In fact, the two men hold widely divergent positions on charter schools, book bans, the state’s new third-grade retention law, and most of the biggest education issues facing Tennessee for the next few years, according to their responses to Chalkbeat’s 2022 candidates survey.

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.