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 177 articles by Marta W. Aldrich :
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.
In addition to new summer school and tutoring programs to catch students up from learning disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Bill Lee promised a pay hike for teachers, but did not specify an amount.
The 112th Tennessee General Assembly convened on Tuesday and is gearing up for a Jan. 19 special session to focus on pandemic-related challenges for students, educators, and schools.
Victoria Robinson, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education, said the job won’t be filled “at this time due to budget and other uncertainties.”
SCS Superintendent Joris Ray and his counterparts in Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga appeared virtually for an hourlong panel discussion with members of the House Democratic Caucus ahead of this year’s legislative session.
As of Wednesday, 40% of Tennessee’s 95 counties had moved into the priority group that includes teachers. Those areas have smaller populations and fewer health care workers to inoculate after years of rural hospital closures.
Calling it an “exciting moment,” Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn on Monday unveiled Reading 360, an array of programs to train teachers on reading instruction and provide resources to school districts.
They’ll be able to get their shots during the same phase as Tennesseans ages 75 and above — and before those in the 65-74 age bracket.
The Republican governor wants the newly elected 112th General Assembly to convene on Jan. 19 to look specifically at education challenges during the pandemic.
Gov. Bill Lee declared Pfizer’s vaccine “safe” as Tennessee gave its first doses to health care workers while recording some of the nation’s highest rates of virus spread. The Republican governor reiterated that the shots will be optional for people in public schools.