The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) announced Rogersville City School’s Melissa “Missy” Testerman as Tennessee’s 2023-24 teacher of the year Friday evening.Testerman is an English as a second language instructor at Rogersville Elementary School who additionally serves as a mentor for new teachers and has been a teacher for 31 years. She’s also the president of the Rogersville Education Association, serves as the summer camp coordinator for the district, participates in the nonprofit Readers Are Leaders which helps at-risk readers, and serves on committees and boards throughout the district.

The first week of the special session on public safety may have seen more criticism for what lawmakers didn’t do than what they did.Only a bill to fund the special session made it through both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly and members are unexpectedly opting to return for a second week.

A crowd of roughly two dozen Shelby County parents and educators gathered Wednesday night to explain why they believe ease of understanding and transparency will be critical to a new resource for grading how well schools are serving students.The public hearing is the latest in a series of forums the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) is hosting across the state to gather input to improve the new evaluation tool called School Letter Grades. The department plans to launch it in November to provide the public with an A through F grade for each public school.At Wednesday’s forum at the Southwest Tennessee Community College Macon Cove Campus, parents and educators focused their feedback more on making the School Letter Grades understandable and transparent for parents than on specific changes to accountability measures.

For the second time members of the Metro Nashville Public Schools Board of Education are taking the unusual position of stepping into the Nashville mayoral election.Board members put out a joint statement Thursday to officially endorse Metro Councilman Freddie O’Connell in the upcoming mayoral runoff against former Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Assistant Commissioner Alice Rolli.

Three of Tennessee’s largest school districts are touting their academic growth on the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS).Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) and Hamilton County Schools (HCS) all put out press releases to celebrate their status as TVAAS Level 5 school districts, the highest distinction available.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers voted down a controversial bill to increase the number of people allowed to carry a gun on school property in Tennessee.By a tied vote of 9 to 9 the members of the House Education Administration Committee failed to advance House Bill 7064 Wednesday evening.

The House Civil Justice Committee proved to be nearly as eventful on Wednesday as its subcommittee the day before.Representative Jason Powell, D-Nashville, began the meeting by calling for subcommittee chair Representative Lowell Russell, R-Venore, to apologize for removing the spectators who were holding signs and clapping during Tuesday’s meeting. That included family members of Covenant School Shooting survivors.“I think the member and the chair of this Civil Justice Subcommittee owes the public and the people of Tennessee an apology for the way they were treated yesterday. That has no place in this building and to turn a school shooting tragedy into a travesty of democracy and the First Amendment is shameful. And I would ask that member to share with many of these people who are in our audience today, who couldn’t be here, and who are watching to express that apology and make sure that never happens again,” said Representative Powell.

For the second straight day, members of the Tennessee State Senate continued to table the vast majority of bills they’ve filed in the special session on public safety.Members of the Senate Education, Health and Welfare, and State and Local Government Committees tabled every bill on their agenda Wednesday. 

Members of the Tennessee State Senate appear to be approaching the special session on public safety in a more abbreviated fashion than their House counterparts.

Formerly expelled Representatives Justin Jones, D-Nashville, and Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis, will serve on multiple House committees during the special session on public safety this week.Tuesday morning House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, reappointed both to the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee and Subcommittee. Jones will additionally serve on the Education Administration and Transportation Committees and Pearson will serve on the Education Instruction and Local Government Committees and the Elections and Campaign Subcommittee.Jones himself questioned whether he’d serve on any committees before the appointment and that led to a heated discussion when Sexton ruled the Nashville lawmaker out of order, without answering the question.

Cary Byrge began noticing something frustrating towards the end of her son’s second-grade year in school.Byrge’s son was supposed to receive regular speech therapy through Knox County Schools, but that assistance became less reliable.“The first two years went great. Then all of a sudden, towards the end of second grade, he began to receive speech services less and less and less and I would call, and I would email, and we would have meetings and we would put a band aid on it for the end of the year and then say they would try to do better next year. But it never got any better, it actually got a lot worse,” said Byrge.That was especially true when her son entered the sixth-grade.

Nashville mayoral candidates Freddie O’Connell and Alice Rolli provided differing views for how to support school choice at the first education-focused debate.During Thursday’s forum hosted by Opportunity Nashville, Rolli said students who attend underperforming schools should have the option of switching to their desired school with district-provided transportation resources.

Tennessee’s black male students statistically lag other demographics in enrolling, persisting, and completing post-secondary education. The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) held a panel Wednesday to discuss how to reverse that as part of its SCORE Institute informational series on preparing students for Tennessee careers.“This SCORE Institute, and many of you have been here through kind of the series of SCORE Institutes, but this one in particular is focused on Black male success. And that’s not to say that there’s not room for improvement in serving all students well, but the data for Black males in particular is alarming,” said SCORE Vice President of Strategy Mary Cypress Metz.

Members of the Tennessee General Assembly have filed more than two dozen bills in advance of Monday’s special session on public safety.  More legislation is expected to be filed before the session begins at 4 PM, but bills filed so far deal with mental health facilities, gun locks, and extra penalties for threatening a mass shooting.

Parents and educators in Dickson kicked off a series of town hall events across the state Tuesday night designed to help the state grade its public schools.The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) is hosting a total ten forums throughout August and September to fine tune the long awaited A-F School Letter Grades. When it launches in November, the new accountability resource will provide the public with a clear understanding of where schools fall on a grading scale in comparison to other schools.“What we wanna hear from you about is how do we measure a school’s academic progress. We’re thinking about developing a letter grade system for schools that’s really intended to provide parents and families with clear, understandable information that’s comparable across the state,” said a TDOE representative in the hearing.

Parents and educators in Dickson kicked off a series of town hall events across the state Tuesday night designed to help the state grade its public schools.The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) is hosting a total ten forums throughout August and September to fine tune the long awaited A-F School Letter Grades. When it launches in November, the new accountability resource will provide the public with a clear understanding of where schools fall on a grading scale in comparison to other schools.“What we wanna hear from you about is how do we measure a school’s academic progress. We’re thinking about developing a letter grade system for schools that’s really intended to provide parents and families with clear, understandable information that’s comparable across the state,” said a TDOE representative in the hearing.

Fifth-graders walking into Intrepid College Prep’s Opportunity Academy Middle School this month will immediately notice something different.Unlike traditional public schools in Davidson County, their home room is named after a college or university. Director of Organizational Advancement Abby Barton says it’s all part of putting students on the path to higher education.

For more than two decades, Levar Brown has been proving to himself exactly what he can and cannot do.Along the way, Brown likewise has proven a consistent, persistent influence in the lives of Chattanooga-area youth.

Tennessee State University (TSU) President Glenda Glover announced her retirement from the position after a decade of service Monday.“Serving as president of TSU has been an honor of a lifetime. Words cannot express the emotions I have as I stand before you this morning. TSU prepared me for every accomplishment I have achieved throughout my career. This is indeed more than a full circle moment for me,” said Glover.Glover was born in South Memphis and later moved to Nashville to attend college at TSU where she would graduate in 1974.

Mauricio Calvo, the newest member of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board, took his oath of office next to the children’s section of a public library, with the county’s juvenile court judge swearing him in.