Marta W. Aldrich is the senior statehouse correspondent at Chalkbeat Tennessee. A newswoman for The Associated Press for most of her career, Marta has covered state government, politics, business, education and other Tennessee news. She has served as news editor of United Methodist News Service and features editor of American Profile magazine. Marta is a graduate of Memphis City Schools and the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
75 articles by Marta W. Aldrich :
The Individualized Education Account program is under scrutiny, and voucher opponents say the problems bolster their case that Tennessee can't be trusted to launch the larger school voucher program this summer.
Steve Canavero is working with the newly created Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. He led a similar charter initiative in Nevada. Tennessee's 118 charter schools are mostly in Shelby County.
Getting high-quality private schools to sign on is viewed as crucial to the success of the education savings account program, which will launch with up to 5,000 students zoned for Shelby County Schools, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, and the state-run Achievement School District.
The new hires are expected to further expand the influence of organizations advocating for education policies such as vouchers and charter schools.
Likely to lead the 2020 agenda will be proposals to improve students’ reading skills and increase teacher compensation, two needs that most every lawmaker can agree on.
State Rep. Mark White says charter schools in the Achievement School District should be under the charter commission, but state Rep. Antonio Parkinson says all 30 schools should return to local districts in Memphis and Nashville.
A legal challenge by Shelby County Schools and Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools pits Tennessee’s two largest districts against the state over whether it allocates enough money to provide an adequate education to urban students who live in poverty, have special needs, or come from non-English-speaking homes.
According to a copy of the proposal obtained by Chalkbeat, the transition is part of a massive reset for the embattled turnaround model known as the Achievement School District, which has fallen woefully short of its goal to improve student performance since launching in 2012.
Reps. Bo Mitchell of Nashville and Joe Towns of Memphis have drafted separate proposals that would rescind Tennessee’s education savings account law.
The Department of Education released a statement Wednesday aimed at settling questions about the tax implications of receiving an education savings account under a new law championed by Gov. Bill Lee.
The program is on track to launch in the fall of 2020, a year earlier than required under a new state law. Lee ordered the accelerated timeline this summer.
The majority of the approximate 250 departures have been resignations rather than retirements or firings. The departure rate of just over 19% exceeds those of Schwinn’s two predecessors over comparable periods, according to state records.
ClassWallet started work for Tennessee Nov. 4 after signing a two-year contract worth $2.53 million with the Department of Education, according to documents obtained by Chalkbeat.
Most of the 18 sources of lead were drinking fountains, but some were kitchen sinks and coolers, according to a report submitted by Shelby County Schools to the Tennessee Department of Health last week.
A plan that sets Tennessee’s agenda for the next five years will bring new attention to students’ social and emotional health in a state that has given more lip service than funding to that need in recent years.
Public school students finished with an overall average of 20 on a scale of 36, down from 20.2 last year and mirroring a national slump on ACT results.
Tennessee House Democrats want to ask about a pot of money tucked into the Department of Economic and Community Development’s budget.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress is given every two years to provide a snapshot of U.S. student achievement for the Nation’s Report Card. With the showing, Tennessee defied national downward trends and edged closer to — but still fell short of — its ambitious goal of moving into the top half of states by 2019.
About 69% of those polled support continuing to use TNReady in Tennessee schools, a jump of 10 percentage points over this time last year.
For the time being, Tennessee will stick with a framework that emphasizes academic growth for all students, regardless of whether those students are deemed proficient on state tests.
The uptick for Shelby County Schools was small — from 79.2% to 79.3%. It was below the 80% benchmark set by Tennessee’s largest district to reach its goal of achieving a 90% graduation rate by 2025.
Debate over student growth versus proficiency has been ongoing for decades. Tennessee's William Sanders came up with the nation’s first system for evaluating teachers based on student growth, and the state was an early adopter of the model.
Rep. Antonio Parkinson of Memphis blasted the Education Department’s handling of the communication, which he worried could contribute to a climate of racial stereotyping, bullying, or low self-esteem for some students.
The Shelby County Schools district has not yet filed a report with the state on levels of lead in water sources at schools built prior to 1998. In Germantown Municipal School District, three schools found water sources that tested above the state’s safety threshold.
The State Collaborative on Reforming Education, which launched in 2009 to advocate for policies intended to boost student achievement, will combine forces with Complete Tennessee, which formed in 2016 to try to help more students finish college or other educational training after high school.
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