A middle school and improved financial education are among the improvement’s residents in Memphis’ Orange Mound community say are desperately needed to improve the area’s challenges with racial inequity and generation poverty.Those suggestions came Wednesday evening during a community forum in Orange Mound for the More for Memphis initiative.

Leaders of American Classical Education (ACE) didn’t hold back their criticism of Jackson-Madison County school board members who voted down a proposal to establish the county’s first public charter school.Following the board’s 5-1 vote to deny Tuesday, ACE board member Dolores Gresham released a scathing press release that claimed the board ignored the voices of local families who want more school options.

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) District 5 school board member Christiane Buggs listed public charter school demographics as one reason why she planned to vote against an application to open Invictus Nashville Charter School. Any parents listening to her comments during Tuesday's board meeting came away with an inaccurate view of who public charter schools are actually serving.

Five public school teachers joined the Tennessee Education Association (TEA) to file a lawsuit challenging the state’s so-called “prohibited concepts” law, restricting what can be taught on race, gender, and unconscious bias in public classrooms.The lawsuit asks for the court to declare the law unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment.“There is no group of individuals more passionate and committed to ensuring Tennessee students receive a high-quality education than public school educators,” said Knox County Educator and Tennessee Education Association President Tanya T. Coats. “This law interferes with Tennessee teachers’ job to provide a fact-based, well-rounded education to their students.”

As August gets closer, Tennessee school districts are preparing for the new school year by providing families with the information and assistance they need to start that first day on the right track.Several of the state’s largest districts are offering resources online to families.

Public charter schools haven’t exactly received the warmest of welcomes from the Metro Nashville Public Schools Board of Education in recent years, but Dr. Brenda Jones hopes to change that Tuesday night.Dr. Jones’ proposed Invictus Nashville Charter School is one of three charter applications board members will be deciding whether to approve. The board denied all three in the initial round of the approval process last April. That vote followed a similar denial of every proposed public charter school the year before.Jones hopes Invictus Nashville will find an easier path with its education model that focuses not just on academic outcomes, but social and emotional outcomes, opportunities for students to direct their education, and help students figure out what they want to do and what they can do to pursue their goals.

Three weeks into her job as Tennessee’s education chief, Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds says her charge from Gov. Bill Lee is to implement existing major policy changes — from how reading is taught to the continued rollout of private school vouchers — not to craft new initiatives.

The halls of Cheatham County’s middle and high schools will look a bit different when students return August 7.  Students will no longer be carrying backpacks to class.

Members of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) Board of Education voted to deny four out of five applications Tuesday night from public charter schools vying to transition from the state’s Achievement School District (ASD) and into MSCS.The vote means an uncertain future for Humes Middle School, Martin Luther King Jr. College Preparatory High School, Cornerstone Prep Lester, and Fairley High School in the 2024/2025 school year. Each school could face closure, a merger into the district’s Izone turnaround school model, or potentially even remain open as public charter schools if leaders successfully appeal to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.Each of the five schools applying for transition to MSCS is doing so because the school is in the last year of a ten-year term with the Achievement School District. The ASD is an intervention run by the state to serve schools that are in the lowest five percent of schools, or a low achieving school across the state.

The number of third-grade students approved to advance to the fourth-grade by appeal grew by 5 percent over the last three weeks of June.The Tennessee Department of Education released final data Wednesday of the appeals process that ended last month for the state’s new Third-Grade Retention Law. The department says 7,812 of the 9,054 students who filed appeals were successful. That 86 percent is higher than the initial data the department released last month, showing an 81 percent successful appeals rate.

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) selected Christine Tran to represent her fellow MNPS students on the school board next year. Tran is a rising junior at the soon-to-open James Lawson High and former student of the recently closed Hillwood High School.

A short-handed Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) Board of Education chose an unexpected path in the public charter school approval process Tuesday night. With several members absent, the board voted to support a proposed public charter school that failed to pass multiple reviews while denying others the district itself rated higher.

The vast majority of Tennessee school districts are seeing improvement on state testing for the 2022/2023 school year.According to district level data released Tuesday by the Tennessee Department of Education, 132 of 147 school districts improved their proficiency rate on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) compared to the prior school year.While the percentage of results hasn’t returned to pre-COVID levels, new Department of Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds praised the improvement.

Shelby County Commissioners chose non-profit leader Mauricio Calvo to fill a vacant spot on the Memphis-Shelby County School Board.District 5 has been without representation since former Board Vice Chair Sheleah Harris’ abrupt resignation last month.At Monday’s meeting, commissioners voted 7 to 4 to confirm Calvo to serve as interim board member until the end of Harris’ term in September 2024. Calvo beat out three other candidates for the appointment.

Shelby County Commissioners chose non-profit leader Mauricio Calvo to fill a vacant spot on the Memphis-Shelby County School Board.District 5 has been without representation since former Board Vice Chair Sheleah Harris’ abrupt resignation last month.At Monday’s meeting, commissioners voted 7 to 4 to confirm Calvo to serve as interim board member until the end of Harris’ term in September 2024. Calvo beat out three other candidates for the appointment.

The approval process for proposed new public charter schools is about to begin its second round for school districts across the state.Four school boards will be voting on amended applications this month from nine public charter schools that were all denied in the spring.

The Knox County Schools board of education approved a policy to allow students to leave school for an hour to earn elective credits for religious courses.The 7-1 decision came with some reservations from board members, including Reverend John Butler. The District 1 board member raised numerous concerns about the vagueness of the policy.

The future of a state law that bans unions from deducting dues from teacher paychecks is now in the hands of three Davidson County chancellors.That panel of Chancery Court judges heard arguments on the payroll deduction ban Thursday afternoon from the Tennessee Education Association (TEA) and the Tennessee Attorney General's office. 

The governing body of middle and high school athletics is cracking down on unruly fans by punishing their schools.Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) approved new bylaws that fine schools a minimum of $250 when fans are ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct during a sporting event.

A new report by the Tennessee Comptroller found Tennessee students are showing a strong interest in Health Science careers.The Health Science cluster is the most popular choice for students taking career and technical education (CTE) courses in both high school and in college and trade schools according to the Comptroller.Out of more than 74,000 high school students participating in CTE, more than 22 percent are taking health science classes. That’s more than 16,000 students.