When Governor Bill Lee unveiled his proposed program to offer taxpayer funded private-school scholarships Tuesday, Tennessee House Education Administration Chair Mark White, R-Memphis, was among the supporters who made the trip to Nashville to be in attendance.White says he plans to support the Education Freedom Scholarship Act as he believes competition will improve education in Tennessee.

When Governor Bill Lee unveiled his proposed program to offer taxpayer funded private-school scholarships Tuesday, Tennessee House Education Administration Chair Mark White, R-Memphis, was among the supporters who made the trip to Nashville to be in attendance.White says he plans to support the Education Freedom Scholarship Act as he believes competition will improve education in Tennessee.

About 3,500 social studies teachers converge on Nashville this weekend for their annual national conference, but not without some pushback for meeting in a state with multiple laws aimed at classroom censorship and restrictions related to discussing race and gender.“Some of our members have worried that this could be a hostile environment for them,” said Wesley Hedgepeth, a social studies teacher in Henrico County, Virginia, and this year’s president of the National Council for the Social Studies.

Arieale Munson says the private school her 12-year-old son Steven attends in Memphis is putting him on the path to his dream of becoming a paleontologist.St. George’s Independent School provides Steven with an outdoor club where he looks for fossils and archives. Munson says the school also provides her son with access to extra-curricular activities like Lacrosse, tennis, and swimming.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee plans to unveil the details of a proposed statewide expansion to the Education Savings Account (ESA) program Tuesday.The current ESA pilot program allows qualifying economically disadvantaged students who attend Memphis-Shelby County Schools, Metro Nashville Public Schools, Hamilton County Schools, or a school that was in the Achievement School District on May 24, 2019, to apply state and local dollars toward education expenses at private schools.

More than 5,200 students are currently enrolled in the state’s Teaching as a Profession (TAP) apprenticeship program and the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) anticipates that number to increase with the implementation of a new pre-apprenticeship pilot program.The state-certified pre-apprenticeship program aims to provide high school students with hands on teaching experience in their local communities.“TAP courses are a valuable opportunity for students to get hands-on classroom experience while still in high school and this new pilot program will help to better prepare them earlier on to enter the teaching profession,” said TDOE Commissioner of Education Lizzette Reynolds.

Over the course of 6 meetings, state lawmakers on the Joint Working Group on Federal Education Funding have heard testimony from education experts who’ve either asked them not to recommend rejecting federal education funding or cautioned about the uncertainties and challenges of doing so.That changed Wednesday afternoon when lawmakers heard from Sal Nuzzo with the conservative Florida think tank the James Madison Institute and Steve Johnson with the Center for Practical Federalism.

A leader of the panel exploring whether Tennessee can reject federal education funding says he doesn’t expect the state to do so, even if it can find a way.Sen. Jon Lundberg, who co-chairs the special legislative committee looking into the idea, said that based on what the panel has learned during two weeks of hearings that ended on Wednesday, it would be premature to make big changes in the funding streams for Tennessee students.

A legislative panel exploring whether Tennessee should reject federal funding for its K-12 students isn’t allowing public testimony from Tennesseans about how federally funded programs are run or how they affect their children.And it’s not hearing from Tennessee-based advocacy groups either.

The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) is recognizing the impact apprenticeship programs are making in the lives of students this week by celebrating National Apprenticeship Week.The department operates 45 pre-apprenticeship programs that prepare high school students interested in transitioning to one of seven different registered apprenticeship programs across 15 different areas of coursework.

Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds told state lawmakers there’s no easy way for the state to avoid federal education requirements by simply rejecting federal education dollars.Some Republican lawmakers have expressed an interest in rejecting more than a billion in federal education dollars to avoid complying those requirements and Tennessee General Assembly leaders created a Joint Working Group on Federal Education Funding to evaluate the idea’s feasibility earlier this year. This week members of that group are holding three hearings including one Tuesday morning highlighted by Commissioner Reynolds and her administration. 

Leaders of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) told Tennessee lawmakers there may be options to get around the requirements that come with federal education dollars without outright rejecting them.In recent months, some Republican lawmakers have expressed an interest in rejecting more than a billion in federal education dollars to avoid complying with federal requirements.  Leaders created a Joint Working Group on Federal Education Funding to evaluate the idea’s feasibility earlier this year and this week members held four meetings to hear from experts.NCSL Senior Legislative Director Austin Reid provided a briefing Wednesday morning, saying Washington is the only state the organization is aware of that has lost federal funds for refusing to comply with a federal policy. That policy is no longer a requirement.

Non-partisan think tank the Sycamore Institute told Tennessee lawmakers other states would likely receive most federal education dollars Tennessee chooses to reject.Organization Deputy Director Mandy Spears provided a briefing to members of the Joint Working Group on Federal Education Funding Tuesday morning. That group is currently holding meetings to consider whether rejecting federal education dollars is a realistic option for Tennessee.

The Tennessee Department of Education is likely still more than a month away from releasing an A through F letter grade for every public school and the department has received plenty of feedback for how it plans to do it.Last week Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds unveiled the system her department will use to create School Letter Grades. That calculation will measure schools on student achievement and student growth along with other factors like how well schools are preparing students for college and careers.

Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, and Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, attracted national attention this fall when they created a joint taskforce to study whether Tennessee can reject federal education dollars.One of the co-chairs of the Joint Working Group on Federal Education Funding opened the group’s first meeting by casting doubt members will actually propose spending less on educating children.

When Lizzette Reynolds took over as Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education in late July, she immediately inherited the huge job of deciding how to provide an A through F letter grade to every public school in the state.Thursday, Commissioner Reynolds unveiled exactly how her department plans to do that, through a simple calculation that mostly splits student achievement and student growth equally. 

A new survey of Tennessee teachers shows a strong majority are supportive of the state’s efforts to improve literacy.The 2023 Tennessee Educator Survey found perception of the English language arts (ELA) curriculum improved for more than 70 percent of educators.The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) and the Tennessee Education Research Alliance (TERA) released key findings and responses from the survey this week. The state administered the survey to 50 percent of teachers and 47 percent of administrators from February 27 to April 17.

Tennessee’s efforts to increase early literacy appear to be paying off according to the latest review by the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office.The Comptroller released its second annual review of the implementation of the Tennessee Literacy Success Act (TLSA), which aims to ensure that students are on track to becoming proficient readers by the end of third-grade.The review found that Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) scores in English language arts (ELA) are increasing along with the universal reading screener results showing positive trends.

Today is the deadline for high school seniors to apply for the Tennessee Promise, which offers two years of tuition-free college. Here’s what you need to know to apply.