Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) did something different this year when school board members voted to deny three applications to open new public charter schools.The district presented an estimated cost each proposed school would create for MNPS if approved, with public dollars following students leaving traditional public schools for a new public charter school.

The ongoing Memphis-Shelby County Schools superintendent search is receiving helpful information from an unlikely source.At Tuesday’s Memphis-Shelby County School Board meeting, the district revealed it has received around 60 comments on the search at high school sporting events as part of the district’s “Tailgate Talks.”The district has held two Tailgate Talks this month, including one last week at Kirby Stadium that included a large number of comments from younger Memphis residents.“We are doing our due diligence to find a superintendent, but we're taking the time, getting out in the community. Somebody said why are we doing this, this is why we're doing this. Because these young people at Kirby…told us that they felt like they actually had a voice because we stopped, we listened, and we talk with them. Not to them, there's a difference,” said board vice chair Joyce Dorse-Coleman.

A new dashboard launched by the Tennessee Comptroller this week will help parents navigate through misinformation about public charter schools.  The dashboard allows users to research the racial demographics and enrollment numbers of districts that offer public charter schools, and the specific info for each school.

Goodlettsville’s Old Center Elementary students will once again need to attend classes in another school Wednesday.Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) initially relocated those students to Goodlettsville Elementary Tuesday on the advice of the Nashville Fire Department to ensure the safety of our students, staff, and faculty.

Fisk University’s Board of Trustees announced Girl Scout Leader Dr. Agenia Walker Clark as the university’s new president.Clark will be the 18th president and the third female head in Fisk’s history.

Multiple parents of students who attend Stanford Montessori Elementary school in Nashville’s Donelson community made the trip downtown Monday morning to speak out against a proposed public charter school that would also provide a Montessori based education in the area.They may have inadvertently made the case for the proposed school’s approval.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) is hosting a series of “Tailgate Talks” before sporting events across Memphis to learn more about what parents are looking for in their next superintendent.This is the latest step in the ongoing MSCS superintendent search.“As the MSCS Board of Education continues to engage the community in the national search for a superintendent, families are encouraged to join Tailgate Talks. At the events, families can stay informed by enjoying a quick bite and chat with School Board members about the search before the game,” said the district in a news release.The first two tailgate talks took place last week at Kirby Stadium and Southwind Stadium where MSCS board members made themselves available to talk one hour before the games.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) is hosting a series of “Tailgate Talks” before sporting events across Memphis to learn more about what parents are looking for in their next superintendent.This is the latest step in the ongoing MSCS superintendent search.“As the MSCS Board of Education continues to engage the community in the national search for a superintendent, families are encouraged to join Tailgate Talks. At the events, families can stay informed by enjoying a quick bite and chat with School Board members about the search before the game,” said the district in a news release.The first two tailgate talks took place last week at Kirby Stadium and Southwind Stadium where MSCS board members made themselves available to talk one hour before the games.

Members of the Knox County Schools Board of Education unanimously voted to approve board chair Betsy Henderson’s resolution to follow all five recommendations made by the Knox County Schools (KCS) special education task force.The task force made recommendations last month to address what it felt are concerning cultural problems with special education in the district. Henderson proposed a resolution to approve the recommendations last week.“I enthusiastically support and encourage passage of (Chair) Henderson’s resolution to make Knox County Schools a model district for excellence and special education, and implement the task force’s recommendations,” said task force member Cortney Piper. “Reimagining Knox County Schools’ special education is the right thing to do and it’s the legal thing to do. It’s hard work and there’s no question about that. Consider me and hundreds of other special education parents your partners in this hard work.”

Shelbyville parents and educators gave the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) a lot to consider as it fine tunes the new system to provide an A through F grade to each public school.TDOE plans to unveil the School Letter Grades to the public in November and the department has spent the last few weeks hosting public events across the state to gather input.Thursday night’s meeting in Shelbyville provided a number of concerns from both parents and school leaders who don’t want the school grading system to devalue student growth in favor of student achievement.Bedford County Superintendent Tammy Garrett was among them, saying increasing the importance of student achievement on School Letter Grades won’t help with the teacher shortage poorer counties like hers are facing.

Nashville parents and education leaders provided a wide variety of concerns for the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) to consider as it creates a new system to provide an A through F letter grade to public schools.TDOE plans to roll out the School Letter Grades to the public in November and the department has spent the last few weeks hosting town hall events across the state to gather input.Wednesday night’s meeting in Nashville brought concerns from Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) about the timing of implementation.

For the second year in a row, Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) is excluding its schools that serve some of the highest percentages of economically disadvantaged and students of color from the district’s annual celebration event.The September 9 Celebration of Schools Parade and Fair at Nissan Stadium is designed to showcase district schools and educational options to parents, but MNPS leadership opted to exclude public charter schools from taking part.

Rutherford County School Board members voted Shelia Bratton to be the new board chair Tuesday evening, replacing former chair Tammy Sharp.Sharp withdrew from serving another one-year term due to a medical diagnosis that she wishes to focus her full attention on.“I just wanted to thank everyone for the emails, the texts, and the phone calls in support of my well-being and my new diagnosis. I even had some people here tonight. Thank you, thank you everyone, and it was an honor for me to serve the last year and aside Dr. Sullivan and we’re gonna keep going. We’re gonna go from here,” said Sharp.

Accountability was the main focus for Cookeville parents, educators, and administrators during a Tuesday night discussion about how schools should be graded for serving students.The public meeting is the latest in a series of forums hosted by the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) to gather state input on how to improve the new School Letter Grades evaluation tool. The tool will provide an A through F letter grade for each public school when it launches in November.Grading schools based on student academic growth has been a common topic discussed in prior meetings, but this time, multiple speakers stressed the importance of School Letter Grades providing a measurement for student achievement and career/college readiness.

Members of the Tennessee Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission unanimously voted Wednesday morning to remove race/ethnicity and gender from the applications candidates applying to serve on an advisory panel will submit.Commissioners will name that advisory panel next year to provide guidance to the board when reviewing science textbooks and instructional materials for public schools.

Members of the Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Board of Education have seen four of their decisions against proposed public charter schools overturned by the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. Next week two new proposed schools will make the case to be added to that list.The commission has public hearings scheduled for charter appeals from Invictus Nashville Charter School and Nashville Collegiate Prep High School (NCPHS) on Monday. MNPS board members denied applications from both in July.Under state law, denied applications can appeal to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. Its members have the option of overturning local district denials.

Tennessee’s much criticized Achievement School District has a new leader.Dr. Bren Elliot is joining the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) today as the new State Turnaround Superintendent. In the position Dr. Elliot will oversee and support the state-run Achievement School District (ASD) and serve certain priority schools identified as in need of improvement and support.The new superintendent will also oversee the entirety of school turnaround efforts in Tennessee, including moving schools out of the bottom five percent of student achievements, managing supports, interventions, monitoring, and funding for priority schools in the state.

Rutherford County is home to two of the top readers in the state.Smyrna’s Stewart’s Creek High School Senior Taylor Aslup and Murfreesboro’s Oakland Middle School sixth-grader Gibson Weber were among four winners of the annual Tristar Reads contest.

Alice Lockett is an example of the generational challenges many families in Memphis face.As a teenager she dropped out of school after becoming pregnant and had to support her daughter by working at fast food restaurants.

When Subira Gordon took over as the CEO of the Nashville Charter Collaborative last July there was no question what challenge she wanted to work on first.Public charter schools are leading Nashville’s educational improvement journey in many ways, but the public isn’t always getting that part of the story.