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 :
Tennessee used discretionary funds to ensure the Read to be Ready camps continue this summer, but there was no reprieve for a major component of the reading initiative: a statewide network of coaches created three years ago to help teachers improve their literacy instruction.
“I’m really struggling to see how equity is in the equation when 114 districts suffer” as Read to be Ready collapses. – Superintendent Joey Hassell of Haywood County Schools, a rural district near Memphis.
Student mental health is one of 12 priorities identified in the state education department’s proposed five-year strategic plan.
The world’s largest and oldest testing company, Pearson will become the third vendor in five years to administer TNReady in the state’s messy transition to computer-based testing.
The growth in Tennessee’s immigrant population — accounting for 12% of its public school students in 2016 — presents special challenges for rural schools trying to teach smaller numbers of English language learners across multiple grades without additional state funding.
The newest upticks are expected to affect about 3,500 teachers in 62 mostly small or rural school systems now meeting the state’s lowest salary threshold.
Asked on Tuesday if the House would have passed the voucher bill had Casada already been under the cloud of a scandal, Rep. Mark White of Memphis said “probably not.” White voted for the bill.
The state education department must administer the education savings accounts, establish a fraud-reporting system, and suspend or terminate schools that don’t comply with rules. It must produce an annual report on the number of students participating, the results of a parent survey, overall student performance and “graduation outcomes.”
Next school year, all of TNReady will be completed on paper to give the state’s next testing company time to ramp up for an online assessment for older students beginning in 2021. That change was ordered by the legislature this spring at the urging of Gov. Bill Lee.
For her chief of staff, Schwinn has picked Rebecca Shah, who worked at the Texas Education Agency where Schwinn served as deputy commissioner of academics before Gov. Bill Lee hired her as Tennessee education chief.
'We hope the governor reconsiders,' said Joris Ray, Shelby County Schools’ interim superintendent, about the education savings account proposal. 'I think the governor’s heart is in the right place. But on this particular issue, I think he needs to listen and have an open heart.'
The statement — released as the governor’s bill is slated for key legislative committee votes this week — marks the first time that the 3-year-old coalition has taken a stand against a major proposal.
Rep. Ryan Williams pulled his controversial bill from consideration by the House Education Committee on Wednesday, one week after the measure easily cleared a subcommittee over the objections of teachers and law enforcement leaders.
The Tennessee Senate bill retains House language requiring applicants to provide government-issued documents like birth certificates, driver’s licenses, or passports. That provision could be in conflict with a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that requires states to offer public education to all children, regardless of their immigration status.
The latest amendment would cap the voucher program at 30,000 students instead of 15,000 as approved by House committees. And it would add back homeschoolers who were stripped out of the House bill last month to appease several representatives.
Tennessee already has walked back its transition to online testing two times since 2016 when a wholesale switch failed miserably, prompting then-Education Commissioner Candice McQueen to cancel most of that year’s tests and fire Measurement Inc.
Meanwhile, both the Senate and House are expected to pass Gov. Bill Lee’s $30 million school security initiative. The governor wants to prioritize hiring more school resource officers, although the amount falls short of funding an SRO in every Tennessee school.
In the past, critics of vouchers have had more time to mount spirited public opposition, often in the form of rallies in Nashville and Memphis, the city that would likely be most affected.
Gov. Bill Lee's proposed voucher program could provide an average of $7,300 annually to families that make double the annual income under federal eligibility requirements for receiving free and reduced-price lunches.
The Republican governor plans to pay for the program’s first year by stockpiling $25 million annually in discretionary funds for the next three years — but he’s not specifying where the money would come after that.
The coalition, called TN Teachers United, launched last week after meeting with two teachers who helped organize statewide walkouts last year in Arizona and West Virginia.
Supporters and opponents of Lee's proposal for education savings accounts are mobilizing for likely the biggest battle of the legislative session.
The state set an April 11 deadline for vendors' bids to administer the TNReady program. The final contract is to be signed by June 13.
Charter schools were the only education topic addressed when the governor’s office released advance excerpts of Lee’s State of the State address.
Lee’s spending plan will provide Tennesseans with their first detailed look at the first-year policies and priorities of the new governor. He offered few specifics on the campaign trail as he promised education improvements, better jobs, and safer neighborhoods.