There are 37 article(s) tagged Chalkbeat Tennessee:
Memphis-Shelby County Schools cut teacher vacancies by hundreds compared with this time last year, thanks to a bolstered HR team, an official said. More than 200 new hires hold conditional licenses, which expire in three years.
MSCS is required by state law to screen every student for signs of dyslexia, but Tennessee allows only an outside provider, such as a licensed psychologist, to give an official dyslexia diagnosis.
Memphis-Shelby County Schools earned the highest score in the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System for the fourth year in a row. But younger students lost progress in social studies, falling behind expected growth.
As Tennessee lawmakers debated a new universal voucher program earlier this year, one financial analysis projected that 65% of vouchers would go to students already enrolled in private schools.
For the first time in five years, many Shelby County families are missing out on supplemental grocery cash this summer after Tennessee stopped participating in a federal program that served the entire state.
Tennessee may soon make it easier for schools to temporarily remove some students with disabilities from their classrooms.
The program is a significant rollback of Tennessee’s previous summer food benefits initiative.
Two groups want to open the first charter schools for at-risk students under a new state law.
“It’s a one-time bonus that’s basically asking us to sell out our public schools,” said Liz Marable, a longtime Memphis educator who is currently president of the United Education Association of Shelby County. “But we are not for sale.”
The analysis has national implications for ongoing reforms aimed at making swift and dramatic improvement to persistently low-performing schools.
Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson told school board members the governor is planning a “substantial” increase for public education funding in 2025 but didn’t specify how much or for what.
“Our first priority now has got to be taking care of our neighbors in East Tennessee and helping them recover from this storm damage,” Rep. Mark White said.
MSCS is asking the county for more than $200 million in funding for school buildings, both to address maintenance needs at existing schools and to support construction of two new high schools.
But there are still some lingering concerns about the proposal, which would make the proposed University Schools district the 10th public school operator in Shelby County.
The former superintendent departed under an investigation into allegations that he abused power and violated district policies.
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.
Maire Feagins’ temporary employment with the Memphis-Shelby County Schools took effect March 1 on a per diem basis. She’s likely to become MSCS superintendent on April 1, months ahead of the July 1 start that board members had planned.
“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.
Tennessee fourth graders will have to show during state testing this spring that they’ve made progress toward becoming better readers in order to move to the fifth grade.
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.
MLK College Prep students will get to choose from among six schools to attend beginning next school year, as Memphis-Shelby County Schools begins construction of a new high school on the same site.
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.
About 37 results