Rebecca Griesbach Chalbeat Tennessee

Here are seven takeaways from Chalkbeat's forum for Shelby County Schools board candidates Chalkbeat Tennessee hosted its inaugural forum for school board candidates Thursday. Over 200 students, parents, and community members showed up and weighed in on the issues they thought were most important. Eleven of 15...

Teaching degree programs at four-year institutions nationwide are disproportionately white, according to new Urban Institute data. But things look different in Memphis, where two local colleges, the University of Memphis and Christian Brothers University, are making strides to ensure their teaching programs reflect the...

While their children are out of school for the summer, a local parent group is using this time to hit the books. Memphis Lift, a non-profit organization in North Memphis, aims to amplify the voices of those who, some say, have historically been excluded...

Patrick Washington has teaching in his blood.   Washington’s great-great-grandfather, Richard Adkins, was born a slave in Marshall County, Mississippi. After the Civil War, Adkins, who was separated from his parents early on, worked as a sharecropper. Despite long hours picking cotton, he learned to...

Neven Holland was in third grade when his mother pulled him out of his Chicago elementary school and moved him to a school in the suburbs. “I could tell the difference from square one,” he said, noting the suburban school’s nicer facilities and its focus...

A drumline’s cadence filled the corners of Fairley High School’s band room, where 260 band members from across Memphis wrapped up their final practice of the week. “M-M-B!” the group shouted before lifting their instruments to attention. James Taylor, one of the program’s five...

How can a wolf change the river? Why doesn’t a cactus have leaves? Why can’t you exterminate bats in Tennessee? With new state science standards coming to classrooms next fall, these are the kinds of questions students will explore in their science classes. They’ll...

Respect for others, being resourceful, and confronting biases are among the lessons four high-school-age students wanted to convey during a panel discussion for future Teach for America participants. Teach for America Memphis trains recent college graduates and places them in local classrooms for two years,...