The Tennessee Higher Education Commission is requesting new funding in the state’s higher-ed budget to capitalize on the progress made through other state investments geared toward boosting postsecondary enrollment and expanding workforce training.

In the coming weeks, leaders of more than a dozen public charter schools will make the case for why their school’s charter should be renewed for another ten-year term. Charter schools are free public schools operated by an independent contract or “charter” with an authorizing agency like a school district or the state.

This year, five authorizing agencies including school board members with Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), Memphis-Shelby County Schools, Hamilton County Schools, Knox County Schools, along with members of the state-run Tennessee Public Charter School Commission will make those decisions for thirteen charter schools.

Despite the fact that the U.S. Department of Education funnels more than $800 million into Tennessee alone, some leading Republican legislators have signaled support for President-Elect Donald Trump’s promise to eliminate the department altogether.

There have been some mixed reactions to Tennessee lawmakers’ efforts to reintroduce school choice legislation for vouchers that allow public tax dollars to be used for private school enrollment.

Black students in schools and universities across Tennessee and the nation have reported a slew of racist text messages evoking slavery in the days following former President Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election this week.

Despite witnessing a decline in first-time freshmen enrollment, overall enrollment has increased across Tennessee’s public colleges and universities, according to recent data from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.

Voters in Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska have decisively rejected efforts to implement school voucher programs that would allow families to use tax dollars for private school enrollment.

Testing didn’t receive a lot of headlines during the debate earlier this year over Governor Bill Lee’s plan to let families use taxpayer dollars to send their children to private school, but it played an important role in why the legislation failed. Members of the State House and Senate advanced different versions of the Governor’s Education Freedom Scholarship, sometimes called vouchers, and couldn’t come to a compromise on those differences. One of the biggest involved a provision in the House version of the legislation that would reduce the number of tests students in public school are required to take.

The Governor’s new voucher plan unveiled Wednesday includes no reduction in testing and additionally requires participants in grades 3 through 11 to either take a nationally standardized achievement test or The Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program.

A record-breaking number of students applied for the Tennessee Promise program, with over 67,000 applicants from the Class of 2025, an announcement from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) said.

The State Board of Education has selected 21 educators from across the state to join its Educator Advisory Team (EAT) to review Tennessee’s current English Language Arts standards, a recent announcement said.

A new study published by Brown University’s Annenberg Institute indicates that middle school students in the state’s two primary school turnaround models have made very little academic progress in recent years.

Despite criticizing Gov. Bill Lee’s plan previously as “terrible,” Representative Scott Cepicky’s, R-Culleoka, expects lawmakers to iron out their differences about school choice legislation next year.

Students for Education (SFE), a Tennessee-based nonprofit dedicated to encouraging youth civic engagement, is expanding its national footprint as part of a broader effort to help soon-to-be voters advocate for their own education and influence public policy.

New data from the Tennessee Department of Education shows that the statewide graduation rate from the 2023-24 school year was 92.1 percent, breaking the previous record achieved in the 2022-23 school year at 90.6 percent.  

A new report from SCORE notes that “too many Tennesseans are still not realizing the full economic benefits of their education,” despite the state’s efforts in recent years to expand access to higher education and workforce training. To help address the issue, SCORE developed a framework for measuring the value of workforce credentials.

A new survey study from the Applied Social Research Lab at East Tennessee State University indicates that 56 percent of Tennesseans believe the state is “headed in the wrong direction.” Respondents cited concerns over the economy, as well as a divide over Tennessee school districts’ efforts to ban inappropriate books from school libraries.

More and more Tennessee school districts are restricting students’ cell phone use during the school day to reduce bullying and increase student engagement.

Schools like Leadership Preparatory Charter School in Memphis and KIPP Antioch College Prep Elementary (KACPE) in South Nashville have invested heavily in professional development efforts to better prepare teachers for working with multilingual learners and students from underserved backgrounds.

The Tennessee Board of Regents has recently celebrated several groundbreakings for new career and technical education facilities at Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology (TCAT) as part of the state's $1 billion investment in career and technical education, a recent announcement on X said.

Tennessee Public Charter School Commission overturns Metro Nashville Public Schools Board of Education to approve two new public charter schools.