Perhaps no issue was more impactful in last year’s legislative session than education. The 112th General Assembly ended with the historic passage of the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) Act that completely overhauled the way public schools are funded in Tennessee.The 113th General Assembly that begins at noon today likely won’t pass legislation as sweeping, but that doesn’t mean legislators won’t have an opportunity to make an impact on K-12 education.

When the Tennessee General Assembly returns to Nashville next Tuesday, Representative William Slater will be among 19 new members in the State House.Slater won the Republican primary for House District 35 last August and then ran unopposed in November to represent Trousdale County and part of Sumner County.  He’s succeeding former Representative Jerry Sexton who decided not to seek another term in office.

A Tennessee bill would allow every public school teacher in the state to have $500 to spend on classroom supplies.The bill would be an adjustment on the $200 initially stipulated for each teacher’s use in the new Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement funding formula, set to begin in the 2023-24 school year.

Wednesday the Tennessee Department of Education announced over $800,000 in grant funding to 34 school districts throughout the state. These dollars will be used for middle school career and technical education (CTE), school-based enterprise projects at the high school level and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.The department awarded  Middle School STEM Start-Up & Expansion Grants to 52 schools and 29 are receiving Middle School CTE Start-Up and Expansion grants. Seven schools will receive High School School-Based Enterprise grant funding. 

The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) announced another sign of education recovery from the pandemic this week.The department says ACT participation among public school students is now back to pre-pandemic levels. In 2021, participation across the state sunk to 96%, but it has now risen to 98%. The 2018-19 graduating class is the last to have a participation rate that high.

A new report by the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office of Research and Education Accountability (OREA) found fewer Tennessee teenagers are taking drivers education classes in high school.According to the report, 60 school districts in Tennessee received state funding to provide more than 12,000 students with driver education classes last school year. That’s a noticeable decline from just four years ago when 65 districts received funding to provide the class to 15,000 students.

By any measure, Chattanooga Preparatory School’s first high school basketball season was a slam dunk success.The newly established public charter school entered the 2020/2021 season with only a 9th grade class, so the varsity boys team consisted solely of freshmen. The Sentinels still went 10 and 5 on the year, coming one game shy of qualifying for the 8-team state tournament.That record included a 5 and 1 district result for the only public charter school in Tennessee’s Division I Class 1A Region 3 District 5. The Sentinels only district loss came to Polk County rival Copper Basin. The two teams split their season series and then faced off in the district championship game where Copper Basin won a nail-bitter by just two points.It would appear one season of facing the Sentinels was more than enough for Copper Basin.During last month’s Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) annual regional meetings, the small Polk County school proposed moving all public charter schools out of the Division I that they are currently in with traditional public schools. Under the proposal, public charter school athletes would instead compete in Division II with private schools.

Tennessee’s private school voucher law, which now only affects districts and some students in Memphis and Nashville, would widen to include Hamilton County Schools under new legislation filed this week.Sen. Todd Gardenhire, a Chattanooga Republican, wants the legislature to expand the eligibility criteria for the education savings account program to include students in districts with at least five of the state’s lowest-performing schools, as identified in the last three “priority school” cycles since 2015.

Districts throughout Tennessee and the nation are working to help students recover from learning losses spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. But another respiratory illness is threatening to undermine that work.Last month, flu outbreaks sparked school closures in at least 10 districts. And while the spread of flu hasn’t prompted closures in any Shelby County schools, the area isn’t immune to the threat.

K-12 teacher shortages — one of the most disputed questions in education policy today — are an undeniable reality in some communities, a newly released study indicates. But they are also a hyper-local phenomenon, the authors write, with fully staffed schools existing in close proximity to those that struggle to hire and retain teachers.The paper, circulated Thursday through Brown University’s Annenberg Institute for School Reform, uses a combination of survey responses and statewide administrative records from Tennessee to create a framework for identifying how and where teacher shortages emerge.

The Tennessee Department of Education, in partnership with the Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation, announced a free reading opportunity for students and families Wednesday. This winter, parents will have the opportunity to order free, at-home reading resources for children in grades K-2.Based on the child’s age, they will receive an At-Home Decodable Book Series. Decodable books are sequenced to include words familiar with the reader and allow the reader to practice word sounds, phonics and decoding at their grade level. These books allow families to work with their students to practice word sounds and advance the student’s reading skills.

Tennessee is taking steps to ensure that private schools get the opportunity to receive nearly $60 million in unused federal COVID relief funds set aside for them in 2021.But the state is considering loosening some of the strings that the federal government initially attached to those funds. In particular, under several options outlined Monday by Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn, private schools wouldn’t necessarily have to serve a “significant” share of students from low-income families to be eligible for aid, as the Biden administration had required.

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.