A few months ago, I was in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania attending a wedding. Whenever I find myself in a capital city, I always make a point to visit the capitol building. After a brief tour, I walked around the city and wandered into a small indoor mall a few blocks away.The building had clearly seen better days. Most of the commercial spaces were vacant, and the walls displayed hallmarks of vandalism that the city had attempted to paint over. Fake plants coated with a thick layer of dust dotted the interior, and a few presumably unhoused persons were sleeping in an area that was once a food court.

Independence High School student Elaina Reed told Williamson County School Board members that she was scared when one of her classmates bullied her for her race.Reed says that classmate called her a racial slur and said he was going to shoot up every black person in the school. She immediately spoke to the principal following the student’s threats.

A bill that would ban pride flags in Tennessee classrooms narrowly managed to advance on a 5-4 vote in the Senate Education Committee Wednesday afternoon following questions from members of both political parties about its potential consequences.Senator Joey HensleySenator Joey Hensley’s, R-Hohenwald, bill would only allow certain flags to be displayed in the classroom. The bill’s House counterpart sponsored by Representative Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, advanced through key House committees and faces a vote on the House floor next week.

LaKendra Butler moved to Nashville a decade ago with the goal of starting a public charter school.At the time Butler was the principal of a middle school in Dallas and she saw an opportunity to help put students in the Donelson and Hermitage communities of Davidson County on the path to become college-ready high school graduates.

Jose Martinez, a senior at Senn High School in Chicago, wants to teach someday — maybe English. He’s applied to several top colleges in Illinois, but for now, he’s in limbo, unable to complete the financial aid forms he’ll need to attend.

Interim Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Toni Williams says her mother Shirley Yvette Green was a strong woman and a warrior as she battled sickle cell disease.Williams says her mother told her the pain from the disease was like a stabbing sensation all over her body. Despite that, Williams says her mother would often hide her struggles so others wouldn’t worry.“As a sickle warrior, you’re born into this life. It’s a life that gives you many limitations. A life where at any moment, a sickle cell crisis can happen,” said Williams.

A bill that would change the age cutoff date for children enrolling in enrolling in kindergarten failed to advance out of the House K-12 Subcommittee Tuesday.Representative Jody Barrett, R-Dickson, says he initially sponsored the bill following a request from a director of schools in his district who wanted to change the cutoff date for when a child must be five years old to start kindergarten.

As the Memphis community embraces change with open arms, we stand on the threshold of a new era, welcoming Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) newly appointed superintendent Dr. Marie Feagins with enthusiasm and hope.Dr. Feagins takes over the mantle of leadership for a school district that needs innovation, collaboration, and a steadfast commitment to excellence. The families she will soon serve are entrusting their children’s future in her hands.We offered three of those mothers an opportunity to express what they’re expecting and where they hope Dr. Feagins leads the school district in the coming years.

Proposed legislation that requires firearm safety to be taught in schools advanced from the House Education Instruction Committee Tuesday morning.Representative Chris Todd, R-Madison County, says he created the bill with the hope that it would save lives by teaching kids what to do when they encounter a firearm.“It’s certainly not about how to handle a firearm or proper techniques or anything like that. This is literally going to be more on the lines of ‘if you see a gun, tell an adult.’ And that’s the general concept that I think all of these type courses are going to have,” said Todd. “I think this is definitely going to save some lives.”

Tennessee State Representative Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, logged on to social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, at 10 PM Friday night to produce a multi tweet attack on proposed legislation designed to improve the school facilities economically disadvantaged and students of color attend.Her followers received a host of misleading information about not only the bill but also public charter schools in general.

Tennessee Department of Education Assistant Commissioner David Laird told the State Board of Education Friday that school districts may not know until July 1 what fourth-grade students will need to be retained under new state reading requirements.The state’s new Third-Grade Retention law allows third-graders who fail to show reading proficiency on state tests in the spring of their third-grade year to advance to the fourth grade through summer school and/or tutoring in their fourth-grade year.  Those children who receive tutoring still need to show “adequate growth” on spring testing to advance to the fifth-grade.Laird said the complex adequate growth determination that will need to be made for each impacted student likely won’t be finished in time to provide districts with the results until more than a month after school is over.

A group of Westview Elementary School students found a unique way to show off the fruits of the school’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) curriculum.Students designed personalized drink coasters for each member of the Hamilton County School Board. Students presented the coasters at Thursday night’s meeting.“At Westview Elementary, we inspire our students to be thinkers and problem solvers who are ready for college, career, and citizenship,” said Westview principal Deborah Coddle. “I am a believer that if we equip students with knowledge and resources and allow them to design and build solutions to solve problems, then they will thrive and reach their fullest potential.”

Abby McLean’s children are among those who survived last March’s Covenant school shooting that claimed the lives of three children and three staff members.McLean read a letter from Erin Kinney, the mother of Covenant victim William Kinney, to members of the Senate Education Committee in support of Senator Ferrell Haile’s, R-Gallatin, bill to change fire alarm policies in schools.The bill would require each school district, public charter school, private school, and church-related school to create a policy for how students, teachers, faulty, staff, and substitute faculty should respond when a fire alarm is activated outside of scheduled drills.

Tennessee’s comprehensive pandemic-era literacy law, which last year provided several interventions to help struggling third grade readers advance to the fourth grade, offers no such escape hatches for those same students to avoid retention this year if they don’t show “adequate growth” under the 2021 law.Now, as the State Board of Education prepares to vote Friday on what constitutes enough improvement for fourth graders who are at risk, state lawmakers are getting pushback from families whose students could be held back if they score poorly on state tests this spring, even after taking advantage of state-funded tutoring and summer learning programs.

A key House committee voted 12 to 4 to advance a controversial bill that would effectively ban pride flags in Tennessee classrooms Wednesday. That vote followed a vocal debate that even involved questions of whether the bill would allow Nazi and Confederate flags in classrooms.Representative Gino Bulso’s, R-Brentwood, says he’s proposing the bill to ensure children aren’t exposed to values in the classroom that their parents oppose.“(This bill) really addresses one issue, which is whether parents should be the ones who decide what values their children are exposed to when they go to school. Prior to filing this bill, I received complaints from parents in my county and other counties about the presence of different political flags in classrooms across the state,” said Bulso.

Two-thirds of U.S. teachers have limited discussions of political and social issues in their classrooms, even in places where there is no law or policy prohibiting instruction on race, gender identity, sexual orientation or other hot-button topics, according to a new survey conducted by the RAND Corp.

When the American Federation of Teachers, America’s second-largest teachers’ union, officially called for a cessation of hostilities in Gaza on January 30, its language was clear, but careful.The resolution listed the conditions necessary for a bilateral ceasefire, including the release of Israeli hostages and the provision of more humanitarian aid. It excoriated Hamas, both for its Oct. 7 terrorist assault and the brutal repression suffered by Gazans under its control, as well as the Netanyahu government for obstructing the possibility of a two-state solution.

Vanderbilt professor and researcher Jason Grissom told members of the Metro Nashville Board of Education that the nationwide recognition the district is getting for how students recovered from the pandemic didn’t come by accident.Grissom said thinking on two levels is what made it work. That includes the direct instructional intervention district leaders spearheaded, like investing in high-dosage tutoring, and the indirect building systems to support instruction, including mental health and family engagement.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools may have gained a new superintendent this month but the district is losing its Chief of Business Operations.Julius Muse announced his intention to resign at the end of March following the recent passing of his mother.