Tennessee students in a pilot educational savings account program in three counties are receiving $9,800 – the average statewide funding per public school student – this year.That’s higher than the $7,075 first-year number in a proposed statewide ESA program and higher than what the funding was estimated to be heading into the approval of the pilot, which is currently taking place in Davidson, Shelby and Hamilton counties.

With a busy classroom schedule and school operations consuming each day, it’s rarely easy for public school teachers to stay on top of every education bill that’s making its way through the Tennessee General Assembly.Educator voices can be important though to the lawmakers who vote on those bills and that’s one reason why organization Tennesseans for Student Success created Teachers for Student Success two years ago.

When Tennessee lawmakers return to Nashville from this week’s snow delay, fourth-grade retention may very well succeed last year’s heated debate over third-grade retention.Last Wednesday’s discussion in the Senate Education Committee with new Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Lizette Reynolds brought a preview of what that debate may look like.

Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, announced Thursday that he’s moving Representative Justin Jones, D-Nashville, off a key education committee. Sexton appointed Jones to the Education Administration Committee during last summer's special session on public safety but Jones will not serve on that committee during this year’s session.

Five Tennessee State Senators who served on last year’s panel that looked into the possibility of rejecting federal education funding are breaking with their House colleagues and submitting a separate recommendation.

Five Tennessee State Senators who served on last year’s panel that looked into the possibility of rejecting federal education funding are breaking with their House colleagues and submitting a separate recommendation.

Tennessee lawmakers are returning to Nashville Tuesday to reconvene a 113th General Assembly that adjourned in April with more attention for its controversies than legislative accomplishments.The next few months of the session could bring more turmoil, with Governor Lee’s proposal to allow families across the state to use public dollars to attend private school along with the forthcoming Joint Working Group’s recommendations on potentially rejecting federal education dollars.

Tennessee’s learning loss in math could have a permanent impact on the lifetime earning potential of its students.That’s according to Dr. Eric Hanushek of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution think tank. Hanushek says students could see a 5.8 percent drop in overall lifetime earnings based on the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) math results.PISA is provided to 15-year-old students from more than 70 countries every three years and Tennessee students dropped 12 points between 2018 and 2022 on the assessment.

When members of the Tennessee General Assembly convened the 113th General Session last January, ChatGPT was less than two months old.Today 100 million people use the artificial intelligence (AI) platform each week and it’s a leading part of the AI revolution that’s widely predicted to impact our daily lives. That’s especially true for life in the classroom, and Representative Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka, believes artificial intelligence needs guardrails sooner than later.Cepicky’s is proposing a bill to require each university and K-12 school district in Tennessee to develop a policy for how both teachers and students will be allowed to utilize AI.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s proposal to allow families to use taxpayer dollars to attend private school is broadly popular according to a new poll by conservative think tank the Beacon Center.

The Tennessee Department of Education rolled out its much-anticipated School Letter Grades platform Thursday. The system is designed to provide the public with transparency into how well public schools are meeting state expectations by awarding each school with an A through F grade.Parents can use the dashboard to look up the letter grade for each public school in the state.

The Tennessee Comptroller’s Office of Research and Education Accountability (OREA) released a new report that found students who face language, disability, and economical challenges have significantly higher dropout rates than their peers in Tennessee.This disparity is especially a concern for English language learners (ELL) who have a dropout rate of 30 percent in 2021-22, exceeding the state rate by nearly three times.

A heated debate at recent Williamson County School Board meetings will be moving to the Tennessee General Assembly next year.Representative Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, is sponsoring legislation to prohibit traditional public and public charter schools from displaying any flag in the classroom that isn’t the official United States flag or the official state flag of Tennessee. This legislation would effectively ban all pride flags in public schools.Representative Bulso told the Tennessean he was encouraged to file the bill by parents in his county and a school board member who were concerned about “political flags.”

The association that oversees middle and high school sports in Tennessee will now allow church-related schools to become members.The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association’s (TSSAA) Legislative Council approved several changes to its bylaws this month, including allowing Category IV schools, which are church-related schools, to join. Previously, the TSSAA only allowed Category I (public schools), Category II (private schools), and Category III (regionally accredited) schools to become members.

A new report by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found both Memphis-Shelby County Schools and Metro Nashville Public Schools are facing more competition for students than most other large school districts.The study ranked both districts 21 out of the top 125 school districts for the percentage of students in grades 1 through 8 that attend public charter, private, or home schools instead of district run schools.

Tennessee’s education system must do more to help minority and economically disadvantaged students earn postsecondary degrees in order to meet the state’s workforce needs, a report by an education policy and advocacy organization warned.The State Collaborative on Reforming Education’s 2024 report, released at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, lauded Tennessee students’ overall progress on standardized tests since the pandemic, and a rebound in the number of students attending college during that time. But the group noted that fewer students were finishing college within six years of graduating high school.

Tennessee’s education system must do more to help minority and economically disadvantaged students earn postsecondary degrees in order to meet the state’s workforce needs, a report by an education policy and advocacy organization warned.The State Collaborative on Reforming Education’s 2024 report, released at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, lauded Tennessee students’ overall progress on standardized tests since the pandemic, and a rebound in the number of students attending college during that time. But the group noted that fewer students were finishing college within six years of graduating high school.

When the founders of Nashville Classical proposed the new public charter school in 2013, acquiring facilities was a huge challenge.School leaders had to meet with future parents in church basements and parks.Addressing that charter facility gap is among the priorities the Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) announced it plans to advocate for in 2024. Tennessee SCORE unveiled its annual State of Education in Tennessee report Tuesday morning and made the case that charter facilities are one key area Tennessee needs to address to ensure school support meets student needs.

Underperforming Indiana third graders who are held back show significant progress for the next five years, a research study has found.The study examined data from 2011-12 to 2016-17 and found that students who were retained in third grade scored about 18 points higher in English language arts and math in fourth grade than low-performing peers who were not retained. The gains continued through seventh grade, through at a slower rate.