Chalkbeat Tennessee
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.
There are 186 articles by Marta W. Aldrich :
Gov. Bill Lee’s proposal to create a statewide school voucher program easily cleared its first Senate hurdle Wednesday, but took a split vote and five-plus hours of often contentious debate to pass out of a House committee.
In a rare action, the state Board of Education passed a resolution questioning whether the 2021 law targets the right age group.
“Our city is begging for change when it comes to education, and I want to know that this school board has a plan,” said Rep. Mark White, who chairs a House education committee.
The 2021 law that vexed third-grade families last year offers fewer promotion pathways this year.
Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) cited prolonged frustration with the board’s locally elected leadership when explaining his plans to Chalkbeat on Tuesday.
Six months after Tennessee hired its first leader to manage school improvement work statewide, the position is now vacant.
Lizzette Reynolds has no teacher’s license or experience leading a classroom, in apparent violation of a century-old state law outlining the job’s requirements, Democrats say.
A legal challenge to Tennessee’s private school voucher law is back on track after a state appeals court ruled that a lower court erred in dismissing the case.
This week, for the first time under a 2016 law, Tennessee will give each of its public schools an A-F letter grade.
Nashville and Shelby County governments have pulled out of their more than 3-year-old legal dispute with the state over a 2019 private school voucher law.
After months of asking Tennesseans how the state should judge its public schools when giving them their first A-F letter grades, Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds mostly ignored the feedback.
As the state prepares to finally issue its first grades in November, the education department and its new leader are revamping the grading formula.
Tennessee Public Charter School Commission recommends the state overturn five local school board decisions denying charter school applications, including two in Memphis and another linked to Hillsdale College.
The Teacher’s Discipline Act would create a uniform referral process allowing teachers to petition for removal of a student who repeatedly or substantially interferes with classroom learning.
While some states seek to cancel student testing this spring as the pandemic grinds on, Tennessee isn’t wavering in its plan to give tests in person to most of its nearly 1 million students.
‘We are in a crisis situation,’ said Sen. Raumesh Akbari of Memphis, who chairs the Senate Democratic caucus. A GOP spokeswoman responded that the Republican Party is proud of its record on education since taking control of the legislature in 2010.
After a tense exchange between two Memphis-area lawmakers, the Senate Education Committee voted 8-1 for a measure that would ensure Gov. Bill Lee could legally force Shelby County Schools to offer in-person learning.
The policy aims to address the growing mismatch between Tennessee’s increasingly diverse student population and the educators who teach them.
The order keeps alive Tennessee’s quest to create an education savings account program that would provide taxpayer money to eligible families in Memphis and Nashville to pay toward private school tuition.
Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray has stood firm with all-remote learning, and accuses state leaders of being out of touch with the needs of Memphis students, who are mostly Black and disproportionately affected by the deadly virus.
Education commissioner Penny Schwinn says the Tennessee Department of Health is recruiting schools as vaccination sites and school nurses to give the shots “wherever feasible.”
The Tennessee Alliance for Equity in Education is organized by The Education Trust, which last year opened a state office in Tennessee.
The move wrapped up the legislature’s four-day special session on education, called by Gov. Bill Lee to address learning disruptions for students during the coronavirus pandemic, plus perennial challenges with teacher pay and literacy.
If it passes, Tennessee’s two largest school systems would have to reopen quickly to meet that threshold.
Teacher pay is one of the key issues that lawmakers are expected to take up beginning Jan. 19 during a special legislative session on education.