Marta W. Aldrich, Chalkbeat Tennessee

The trouble with developing an emergency exit plan in the midst of a fire is that it’s hard to think through all the details. That’s how some are describing the recent flurry of lawmaking in Tennessee, where lawmakers passed two pieces of emergency legislation last...

Candice McQueen adamantly told state lawmakers Wednesday that she will not step down as Tennessee’s education commissioner over the state’s bungling of standardized tests for a third straight year. One day after House Democrats called for the embattled leader to resign, McQueen reported that students...

Tennessee has been slow-walking its schools into online testing ever since a wholesale switch in 2016 went bust. Now in its third year of the TNReady era, the state will test more students digitally this spring than ever before. And partly because of the...

Tennessee will drop two end-of-course exams for high schoolers next school year in its most significant reduction of state testing in recent years. The state’s testing task force voted Monday to eliminate standardized tests for chemistry and English III — essentially cutting by more than...

The Nation’s Report Card has served as both a carrot stick and a kick in the pants to Tennessee in its quest to improve public schools. The kick in the pants came first, when the state got called out in 2007 for the wide gap...

When a 2013 state law allowed six Shelby County towns to break away from the newly merged Memphis district and create their own school systems, some lawmakers warned it would open up a Pandora’s box across Tennessee. Sen. Todd Gardenhire Now a handful of towns are...

A Tennessee lawmaker is delaying his proposal to arm some teachers with handguns. Rep. David Byrd Rep. David Byrd, who Gov. Bill Haslam named this week to a 17-member panel charged with scrutinizing school safety in Tennessee, said Tuesday he will take a "wait and see"...

Ten students at a Memphis charter school will spend the majority of their senior year learning about medical engineering — all while training at a global technology giant. Kayvion Walton, 17, is one of the seniors from Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering participating in...

For almost 16 years, two Tennessee governors from two different political parties have worked off mostly the same playbook when it comes to K-12 education. This year, voters will choose a new governor who will determine if that playbook stays intact — or takes...