In an effort to increase the hourly wage for its lowest-paid employees, the University of Memphis board of trustees has approved an across-the-board pay raise for all faculty and staff. 

Yolanda Dandridge is leaving for charter operator Memphis Scholars. She will take charge of the Memphis-based charter organization’s Caldwell Guthrie Elementary School. She’s been at Georgian Hills as a teacher, assistant principal and principal since 2013. 

Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray says the district needs to listen more before deciding whether to implement his predecessor's plan to consolidate 28 schools into 10 new ones.

Vatterott Career College’s shuttered culinary school in Cordova will reopen this summer as an extension of the University of Memphis Kemmons Wilson School of Hospitality & Resort Management.

ASD chief Sharon Griffin wants to play a bigger role in the day-to-day operations of charter schools than past leaders have. She wants charter and school leaders to improve test scores, to bolster teacher recruitment and training. But school leaders say they were promised autonomy to run their charter schools as they see fit.

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.

Now that Gateway is officially closed, parents and students are left to find a new high school. Many are headed to their zoned neighborhood schools; others are still searching.

Shelby County Schools is asking for an additional $35 million in capital funding, and $7.5 million in additional operating costs to include support for a reading program and more English as a second language teachers. 

Collierville goes to the other side of the state for the suburb's new school superintendent and selects Gary Lilly, the director of Bristol Tennessee City Schools, to replace John Aitken.

Collierville Schools has interviewed five finalists for the district's next superintendent. The candidates are a mix of educators with experience in Collierville as well as ones who would be new to the system.

Collierville's superintendent search is narrowed to four after Russell Dyer said he is no longer pursuing the job.

The Shelby County Schools budget includes two major parts: the general operating fund that pays for day-to-day expenses, including teacher salaries and classroom initiatives, totaling $1.04 billion; and the remaining $360 million capital budget for new schools and building maintenance.

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.

Teach for America has welcomed more than 1,200 teachers over the past 13 years in Memphis, who have a commitment to stay in the classroom for two years. About 500 alumni of the program are still in Memphis, according to recent numbers from the organization. Nafeesha Mitchell will take over in June.

The district’s proposed budget for day-to-day expenses would be $1.05 billion, which is about 3% less than the current spending plan. The district budget is determined by student enrollment, and the county is required to pay the district at least as much as it did last year. Shelby County Schools wants $10 million more than what would be allocated for next year.

The Achievement School District has dealt with a spin-off like this before with Memphis Scholars, which runs three schools in the state district. But this is the first time Shelby County Schools has dealt with a question like this.

The "SCS is 901" campaign marks 150 years of organized public education as the city celebrates the 200th anniversary of the founding of Memphis.

Efforts to secure resources for Shelby County Schools come in advance of an expected school board vote on a spending plan, which could occur as soon as next week. The budget is the first under the district’s new superintendent, Joris Ray. 

As school shootings continue to occur in America, local colleges and universities are investing in equipment, training and counseling services to take every measure against a shooting on their campuses. 

Small, private school for students with certain learning disabilities is proving to be the perfect fit for some Memphis families.

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.”

With the retirement of two longtime elementary school principals, Bartlett City Schools selects their replacements from two other suburban districts.

PART 2: High-stakes testing has shifted the focus of kindergarten from what's developmentally appropriate to get kids ready for school, to what's academically required to prepare students for their first standardized achievement tests in third grade.

PART 3: Billions of government and philanthropic dollars have funded new curricula and standardized tests, teacher evaluation systems, charter schools and takeover schools. But it hasn't made much of a dent in the third-grade reading gap or any other measures of student performance.