The Tennessee Nature Academy aims to be Middle-Tennessee’s first nature-based public charter school but it’s a different type of green that could cause challenges at next week’s appeal hearing with the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.Commission Executive Director Tess Stovall issued a recommendation against the academy’s appeal, citing a lack of documentation about how the school would acquire the necessary funds to operate and its proposed reliance on per pupil revenue by year three of operation.

Jeffrey Stubblefield didn’t spend his summer break like most elementary school children.  Then again, Stubblefield is no ordinary fourth grader.From May 31 to August 8 this summer Stubblefield spent an astonishing 30,150 minutes reading.  That adds up to roughly seven hours a day with a book.

After three years at Germantown High School, Maya Logan has come to think of it as home — a place where she’s made friends who are more like family, that has helped her learn and grow in immeasurable ways. She dreams of being at graduation in a couple of years, surrounded by the friends and educators who shaped her high school experience.But that dream remains at risk if Memphis-Shelby County Schools and the neighboring Germantown Municipal School District can’t reach an agreement on the future of her school.

The Tennessee Charter Commission overturned MNPS’s decision to reject KIPP Nashville’s applications, approving two new schools in Antioch.

Three Memphians have thrown their hat in the ring to fill the District 7 seat on the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board vacated by Miska Clay Bibbs.Clay Bibbs had represented District 7’s southeast Memphis neighborhoods such as Parkway Village and Oakhaven since 2014, but she left the board in August after winning election to the Shelby County Commission, which will appoint her replacement.

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board has delayed the start of its search for a new superintendent to replace Joris Ray, so that its newest members can get up to speed on the process.The board initially planned to discuss the search during its monthly committee meetings Tuesday. But newly appointed board Chair Althea Greene said she decided to push the conversation off for several weeks.

On Wednesday, the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission will decide whether Nashville families in Antioch and Southeast Davidson County have new high-quality options for their children’s education.The commission is deciding appeals from KIPP Nashville and Saber STEM Academy to open public charter schools in the area. Those appeals received distinctively different reactions from the commission’s executive director.

The proposed Academy of the Arts charter school aims to provide a school choice option for future Ford employees in Fayette County, but faces concerns from the local school board over diversity requirements and curriculum.

Supporters of school choice received another setback to efforts to establish a high-quality public charter school in Tennessee's largest city without one.Friday afternoon, Tennessee Public Charter School Commission Executive Director Tess Stovall issued her recommendation to the full commission to deny Oxton Academy's appeal to establish a public charter school serving at risk students and recent dropouts in Montgomery County.

American Classical Education withdrew its appeals for proposed charter schools connected to Hillsdale College after local districts rejected them and public outcry ensued.

The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission received no written comments from the public in opposition to the four charter school appeals members are hearing from Nashville.Commissioners are planning to decide the appeals for KIPP Southeast Nashville College Prep Elementary, KIPP Southeast Nashville College Prep Middle, the Tennessee Nature Academy, and Saber STEM Academy of Nashville later this month.

Tennessee is celebrating six school districts for their work to accelerate student learning following the pandemic.The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) is recognizing Elizabethton City Schools, Cocke County Schools, Union County Schools, Germantown Municipal Schools, Lenoir City Schools, and Cheatham County Schools for their use of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding and their efforts towards student achievement with the TN ALL Corps program.

Tennesseans overwhelmingly opposed Hillsdale-linked charter schools in written comments, criticizing curriculum and concerns over government overreach. The state commission will vote on the applications in October.

Supporters of the Tennessee Volunteer Military Academy believe their public charter school model is the solution to the school to jail pipeline too many students are following.The proposed school would offer more than 400 hundred 6th through 12th graders in Shelby County the opportunity to attend a free full-time military academy beginning next year and additionally gain experience with leadership and enhanced career technical education with a first responder focus.

The Binghampton neighborhood in Memphis is a community with a diverse population that’s struggling with poverty.Nora Jendoubi says her organization Maslow Development Inc. had both in mind when designing their proposal to establish the Binghampton Community School.The proposed public charter school would offer an International Baccalaureate education that mirrors the diversity of the area’s immigrant community, and the school would anchor the organization’s Lighthouse Project to provide other family needs like affordable housing, healthcare, and workforce development opportunities.

A national student poll from the Data Quality Campaign (DQC), in collaboration with the Kentucky Student Voice Team (KSVT) found that high school students lack the relevant information to successfully navigate post-secondary education and career plans.

Williamson County Schools have the reputation of being among the best public schools in Tennessee but Wednesday morning a group of parents told the Tennessee State Public Charter School Commission that reputation isn’t warranted.Those parents say the district’s schools have become too political and, they have problems with its Wit and Wisdom English Language Arts curriculum.