Marta W. Aldrich, Chalkbeat Tennessee

A leader of the group of lawmakers exploring whether Tennessee can feasibly reject nearly $1.9 billion in federal education funding says that the panel’s work will begin in early November, and that its findings — not politics — will guide its recommendations. “There is no...

When Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton floated the idea in February of the state rejecting U.S. education dollars to free schools from federal rules and regulations, most supporters of public education hoped it was nothing more than political posturing. But on Monday, Sexton and his...

Tennessee’s largest teacher organization has joined with five public school educators to legally challenge a 2-year-old state law restricting what they can teach about race, gender, and bias in their classrooms. Their lawsuit, which was filed late Tuesday in a federal court in Nashville by...

Tennessee’s third-grade reading proficiency rate jumped by more than 4 percentage points to 40 percent on this year’s state tests. But that means up to 60 percent of its third graders could be at risk of being held back under the state’s tough new retention...

Amid worries about teacher shortages, Tennessee is considering reducing requirements for some nontraditional candidates to earn their teacher licenses, despite concerns that the change could hurt teacher quality. In the first of two votes on a controversial proposal, the State Board of Education approved Friday...

Gov. Bill Lee and his Democratic challenger, Dr. Jason Martin, agree that Tennessee students need timely and relevant vocational training opportunities, but the two candidates for governor don’t concur on much else when it comes to K-12 education. In fact, the two men hold widely...

The latest U.S. school massacre has advocates of stronger gun restrictions criticizing Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee anew for signing a bill last year that allows most adults to carry a handgun without a permit. Hours after a gunman wearing body armor and carrying an assault...

For months, Tennessee Republican lawmakers were hearing from dozens of parents concerned about how educators were trying to make their lessons more inclusive in response to the nation’s racial reckoning. One mom even reported that her 7-year-old daughter, who is white, was having suicidal thoughts...

Tennessee plans to invest $100 million of one-time federal funds in phonics-based reading programs in a sweeping attack on low student literacy rates that have bedeviled the state for decades. Calling it an “exciting moment,” Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn on Monday unveiled Reading 360, an array of...

As the first coronavirus vaccines were given this week in Tennessee, a legislative push is under way to weaken a state law requiring them for school, even though convincing skeptics to get the shots might be the quickest way to return education to some...