Caroline Bauman, Chalkbeat Tennessee
In last effort to stay open, Gateway University appeals to Tennessee board
Leaders of a Memphis charter high school requested that the state board of education overturn the local district’s vote to close the school.
The appeal is Gateway University Charter School’s last chance to remain open. State board staff will make a recommendation to the state...
SCS board votes to close Gateway; embattled charter school will shutter in May, unless state board steps in.
The Shelby County Schools board voted unanimously Tuesday to close a northeast Memphis charter high school.
Board members Joyce Dorse-Coleman, Stephanie Love, Michelle Robinson McKissack, Scott McCormick, Shante Avant, Billy Orgel, and Kevin Woods, Miska Clay Bibbs voted in favor of closing Gateway University at the...
Here are the education issues we’re watching in Tennessee’s statehouse in 2019
By Caroline Bauman and Marta W. Aldrich, Chalkbeat Tennessee
With a new governor, a new education commissioner, and new lawmakers steering school policy, 2019 could be a big year for education in the Tennessee statehouse.
Exactly what’s coming isn’t yet clear, although recent hires by gov.-elect...
Memphis Education Fund has a new leader. Here’s what the group will put money behind going forward.
Memphis’ most prominent education philanthropic fund officially has a new leader in former interim CEO Terence Patterson – and one of his big goals for Memphis Education Fund is to finance more creative, grass-roots solutions to education problems facing the city.
“We’re not going to...
This Memphis teacher wanted to make learning physics more engaging, so he created a website. Now it’s used in 40 countries.
Three girls explode into laughter and cheers as they roll a small cart across the table, successfully getting a rubber band to launch the cart just fast enough to knock a washer off the back of the cart, but not quite fast enough to...
Why this Memphis educator wants students to know that scientists aren’t just ‘white men in white lab coats with crazy hair’
How do teachers captivate their students? Here, in a feature we call How I Teach, we ask great educators how they approach their jobs. You can see other pieces in this series here.
Eight years ago, James Johnson was doing everything right to become an...
Hopson was the “right leader for a fragile time,” Memphians say.
Dorsey Hopson recently went on a victory lap.
In late October, he and other Shelby County Schools top officials traveled around to a half dozen schools that highlighted different successes in the district under Hopson’s leadership as superintendent. The tour touted the district’s Innovation Zone...
Cold temps close Memphis state-run schools, highlighting bigger issue of repairing costly, aging buildings
About 1,200 students in Tennessee’s turnaround district stayed home from school on Tuesday because their school heating systems weren’t working properly.
Temperatures dipped below 35 degrees, and four schools in the Achievement School District opted to cancel classes because of boiler issues: Georgian Hills Achievement...
How do you turn around a district? Six months into her tenure, Sharon Griffin works to line up the basics.
In a crowded room at a community center in a north Memphis neighborhood, the leader of Tennessee's turnaround district takes a microphone and addresses the parents and students gathered.
“I’m here because we care deeply about your students, and we know we can do better...
Aspire Memphis’s future in question as board weighs paths forward
Facing a roughly $2 million operating deficit and lagging academic progress, a California-based charter organization that runs four schools in Memphis is reconsidering its future in the city — even floating the possibility of pulling out of the area altogether.
At a public meeting on Friday,...