TNReady tests are designed to assess every student’s true understanding of the material they’ve studied, not just memorized. The goal is to know how to help students advance their knowledge and skills, teachers raise their level of instruction, and districts improve their schools.

Students were welcomed back to Dunbar Elementary School by the principal, teachers and community groups. The school is now part of the Shelby County Schools Innovation Zone. 

Tennessee’s State Department of Education, as well as the state’s two largest school districts, Memphis and Nashville, are heading into their first new school year after major leadership changes.

During a recent orientation, newly hired teachers learned more about the Shelby County Schools focus on social and emotional learning. 

About 24% of third-graders in Shelby County Schools scored proficient in reading on the state’s standardized assessment TNReady, down from about 27% last year. Statewide, 36% of elementary students tested proficient.

Brother Stanislaus Sobczyk, who led Christian Brothers University from 1999-2005, has died.

A two-day robotics training program at the University of Memphis is trying to show teachers that leading students in robotics and technology isn’t so difficult.

Terry Ross, who had served as principal at Kingsbury High School since 2014, was suspended with pay a year ago. He now will be an advisor with a new program for schools leaving the district’s most rigorous program for low-performing schools.

When a landmark study found that children in Tennessee’s pre-K program eventually fared worse than peers who didn’t participate, the surprising results unleashed a new wave of research to understand why.

On the literacy front, the district is adding teacher assistants in second grade and implementing a phonics curriculum this year to ramp up a plan to hold back students in second grade if they don’t meet certain reading benchmarks in the 2021-22 school year.

The policy gives the board the ability to deny a charter school application to open in a neighborhood with relatively few students; establishes a timeline for revoking a school’s charter if it shows poor academic results; and provides schools a chance to compete for free rent in district buildings.

It’s a reprieve for low-performing schools that are academically in the state’s bottom 5%, known as priority schools. Most are in Memphis and Nashville and were expected to receive some of the lowest letter grades. 

Carol Johnson-Dean, superintendent of Memphis City Schools from 2003-2007, before leaving to take the top job at Boston Public Schools, will replace Andrea Miller. The LeMoyne-Owen board didn't renew Miller's contract.

Freedom Preparatory Academy will continue operating its Westwood neighborhood elementary school as part of the state turnaround district instead of moving the school to Shelby County Schools oversight.

A dozen people from other states answered Tennessee school chief Penny Schwinn’s request to meet in Nashville and talk about the Achievement School District. Seven years after its creation, the Tennessee district’s third leader recently left; a study found the program has not improved student achievement; and Schwinn said no new schools will join this year.

Parent-led community organization Memphis Lift joined with North Memphis businesses to provide school supplies to local children.

Educators say the four-to-one model of students to teacher is showing signs of success for those with learning disabilities and should continue to grow.

By 1978, 40,000 white students had left Memphis City Schools, a move that contributed to Memphis’ distinction of having one of the largest private school systems in the country. Memphis schools remain starkly segregated, with 90 percent of students enrolled in 2018 identifying as black.

Shelby County Schools leaders hope the bus passes will encourage students to participate in after-school activities, get jobs, post higher test scores and miss school less often.

The openings and closings will bring the total number of Memphis charter schools to 82 — with Shelby County Schools overseeing 57 and the state-run Achievement School District overseeing 25 more.

Under a $3.7 million federal grant, the Georgia-based Baptiste Group had proposed operating a residential facility until 2025 at the former South Side Middle School, which until last summer housed a state-run charter school. But Baptiste withdrew its application after Chalkbeat started asking questions about the plan.

Joris Ray, Shelby County Schools superintendent, says he wants to change the school district's approach to educating black male students, in order to "change the face of SCS and change the face of Shelby County and Memphis." 

A suit filed by the LeMoyne-Owen College Faculty Organization against the college and its board of trustees reveals the mistrust that existed between the administration and faculty before the college president was fired.

The state-run district took over low-performing schools in Memphis and Nashville with a goal of vaulting them out of the state’s bottom 5% and into the top 25% academically. The schools – 28 in Memphis and two in Nashville – have performed no better or worse than comparable struggling schools outside of the district.

Gov. Bill Lee said the state, which began its new fiscal year on July 1, has enough money to start the education savings account program for the 2020-21 school year. His decision to work toward an early rollout caught even some staff members in his education department off guard.