Before Thomas Guskey became a leading academic expert on grading and assessments, he was a middle school math teacher. One day he was chatting with an 8th-grade student, who he described as a “superstar,” and asked if she had studied for that day’s exam. He was shocked to hear she hadn’t.

Members of the House K-12 Subcommittee voted Tuesday to advance a bill designed to reduce the number of fourth-grade students held back under the state’s new Third-Grade Retention Law.The new 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 the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) in the fourth-grade to advance to the fifth-grade.

Tennessee Charter School Center (TCSC) Chief Executive Officer Dr. Maya Bugg announced she will be stepping down in early summer after leading the organization for the last nine years. The center plans to name an interim CEO and conduct a search for a long-term replacement following the 2024 legislation session.

The House Government Operations Committee advanced what supporters are calling a compromise in the proposal to vacate Tennessee State University’s (TSU) Board of Trustees.Last week the Senate Education Committee advanced its version of the bill that would vacate all ten members of the board and would allow Governor Lee to appoint eight of them.

The House Government Operations Committee advanced Governor Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship Act Monday with a positive recommendation following a sometimes testy debate on accountability and costs.The legislation would expand on the concept of the existing Education Savings Account (ESA) pilot program in Davidson, Shelby, and Hamilton counties to allow families across the state to send their children to private school with taxpayer dollars.

At 5 feet tall, Uyen Tieu doesn’t tower over anyone, including many students. So when a superior said she was too petite to be anything but an elementary school principal, she figured he was probably right.A decade later, Tieu has not only been an assistant principal and principal, she’s now in charge of student support services for the Houston Independent School District — the eighth-largest school system in the U.S. But as an Asian woman and a single mother, she still feels pressure to prove herself in a male-dominated field.

A new poll from the National Parents Union (NPU) found a growing concern for the negative effects of social media consumption.That survey found 83 percent of parents believe there should be a minimum age restriction for when kids can have their own social media account.Most social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) require their users to be at least 13. Out of more than 1,200 parents polled, 20 percent found this to be the appropriate age restriction for children having their own social media accounts. Slightly less (16 percent) believe that age should be 16.

Members of the House Education Administration Committee advanced legislation Wednesday that supporters say will help the state do a better job connecting students with the actual jobs available in their communities.That bill, sponsored by Representative Chris Hurt, R-Halls, would require the state to create a publicly available dashboard that includes data employers and students could use to see how well various instructional programs are working in Tennessee.

Legislation that would vacate the Tennessee State University Board of Trustees and allow Governor Bill Lee to appoint eight new members advanced from the Senate Education Committee Wednesday on an 8-1 party line vote.Senator Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield, says he sponsored the bill as a response to the issues identified in an audit by the Tennessee Comptroller. Roberts told the committee that it’s time for a new vision and this change will be an opportunity for cooperation.

Members of the House K-12 Subcommittee turned their focus to school safety Wednesday by voting on a series of bills designed to prevent future school shootings, including prior legislation from last year’s Special Session on Public Safety.One that received considerable attention is a bill to update safety measures listed in the Safe Schools Act of 2023, by requiring an improved standard of window film or security glass on each exterior door and any glass adjoining an exterior door. This change would include replacing the quarter-inch thick windows in schools with thicker and stronger glass that would be considered bullet-resistant.

The House Education Instruction Committee advanced legislation Tuesday that would require Tennessee students to watch a fetal development video created by a group that opposes abortion rights.The committee voted on party lines in favor of Representative Gino Bulso’s, R-Brentwood, family life curriculum bill requiring schoolchildren to watch “Meet Baby Olivia.” Abortion rights opposition group Live Action created the three-minute ultrasound computer animation focusing on the development of a fetus for family life curriculums.

Viktor Nemykin heads up a chemistry department that’s ranked second in the world for its polymer program and boasts the third largest number of undergraduate credit hours on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville campus.As solid as the department’s foundation is academically, it couldn’t be standing on shakier ground physically.The department operates out of a 113 thousand square foot Buehler Hall that’s slowing sliding off the hill it sets on.

The House Higher Education Subcommittee killed another attempt to change discrimination protection policies at Tennessee universities and higher education institutions.Committee members voted down proposed legislation from Representative John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, Monday that would have prevented state universities and universities that receive state funding from creating antidiscrimination policies or recognizing protected classes that are not recognized by the state.

Memphis parent advocate Sarah Carpenter is among those blasting President Biden’s proposed FY 2025 budget for potentially cutting valuable support for public charter schools.The president’s budget plan includes a $40 million cut to the Charter School Program (CSP) that provides grants to support the startup of new public charter schools and the replication and expansion of existing public charter schools.

Students at Knoxville’s Farragut High School will be able to earn a full elective course credit in Bible studies next school year.Tennessee is one of several states that provide parents with the ability to request released time for their children, allowing schools to excuse a student to participate in an off-campus religious instruction.

Stephen White Eagle approached the Rutherford County School Board Thursday evening to fight for his son’s right to wear an eagle feather in his graduation cap.White Eagle’s son is a senior at LaVergne High School and he says school administrative staff and district administers told his son he wouldn’t be allowed to weather the feather because of school policy.

Tiffany Matthews says a team of teachers oversees her son’s individualized education program (IEP) for autism at Knoxville’s New Hopewell Elementary School.Matthews is grateful for the work they do, but she says those teachers are largely unsupported in their work, which includes making modifications.

University of Tennessee President Randy Boyd told members of the Senate Education Committee that there are three myths tied to higher education.Those myths are that no one is going to college, it’s unaffordable, and debt is inevitable.Boyd said the UT College System has seen total enrollment grow by 7 thousand students over the last five years and it’s planning to increase enrollment from 59 thousand students to 71 thousand students by the year 2030. 

Walter Blanks Jr. says his experience with public schools growing up in an economically disadvantaged neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio was hard.Blanks says he struggled to learn how to read and was bullied to the extent his mother feared for his safety.  That changed when his family took advantage of a school choice program that allowed Blanks to attend a private school.

Two years ago, Linton Beck unexpectedly suffered a cardiac arrest in his chemistry class.The Station Camp High School senior is alive today and able to talk about his experience thanks to the quick work of school staff and their training.Beck says a school nurse and teachers responded within minutes to perform CPR and a school resource officer restarted his heart with an automated external defibrillator (AED).