For more than two decades, Levar Brown has been proving to himself exactly what he can and cannot do.Along the way, Brown likewise has proven a consistent, persistent influence in the lives of Chattanooga-area youth.

Mauricio Calvo, the newest member of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board, took his oath of office next to the children’s section of a public library, with the county’s juvenile court judge swearing him in.

Nashville mayoral candidates Freddie O’Connell and Alice Rolli have taken part in numerous debates in the last few months but education hasn’t always played a large role in the discussion.In the forums leading up to their advancement to a runoff, mayoral candidates have largely only fielded one question at most on their educational positions.  That changes this Thursday.

Marguerite Powell felt her prayers had been answered when she first met Nashville Classical West principal Alexandria Lambert.Lambert was passing out flyers for the then soon-to-open public charter school on Davidson Drive and Powell immediately thought of her grandson who’s starting school this year.Nashville Classical West is opening with an all-kindergarten founding class.“When she said that, I knew it was God. I knew it. Cause I had been praying about it. My children are everything,” said Powell. “It’s a spirit of excellence with even Principal Lambert.”

In 2021, Lewis County Schools’ career and technical education (CTE) department utilized a $124 thousand state grant to give its rural Middle Tennessee students a head start on getting the skills they need for a job after high school.The district spent the money to create a mock hospital and purchase healthcare training simulators to replicate clinical scenarios for students. That grant additionally helped purchase equipment enabling students to produce live-streamed school events and construction equipment to help them create a school-based enterprise that produces various products.“The district expects the purchases to promote student experiences with various industries and move them faster and further in dual enrollment and postsecondary programs and eventually to high-demand, high-wage jobs,” wrote Tennessee Comptroller Research Analysts Kim Potts and Allison Pams.

A special education task force says Knox County Schools (KCS) needs curriculum modifications and other culture changes to ensure special education students are learning in the right environments.Members of that task force provided the Knox County School Board with a list of recommendations Monday night to improve special education. The task force has spent the last three months evaluating how the district serves its special education students and determined there are cultural problems originating from outside of the local school level.

Two of the Memphis activists who were banned in May from entering Memphis-Shelby County Schools property lost a bid in court to have their bans lifted early.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) kicked off the 2023-24 school year Monday morning with teachers holding welcome back signs for students and bands on the steps of their high schools performing.The first day of school was considered successful.“A+ start! 🌟 Our students had a successful first day of school, filled with newness and excitement!” said MSCS on Twitter.”However, without a permanent superintendent, some community members feel that the district is not ready for success in the new school year.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) released new details this week for what the district’s school board will be looking for in the search for a new superintendent.Board members have said they’re aiming to appoint a leader who will accelerate ongoing operational reforms and academic gains, in addition to being a “dynamic, visionary, and adaptable leader.”

In 2010 the future looked anything but bright for the Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy (CGLA).The new public charter school had just finished its first year of operation and the school was in danger of not making it to a second.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools teachers will get salary raises and be able to move up the district’s salary schedule faster under an agreement with the two teachers unions.The new schedule is one part of $78 million in new funds the district is putting toward salaries and bonuses, which officials hope will encourage teacher retention and entice new teachers to fill hard-to-staff roles.

The Metro Nashville School Board approved new changes to the district safety policy Tuesday night in response to school safety legislation signed into law by Governor Bill Lee last May.The biggest change is the formal establishment of district “existence of threat” assessment teams to develop intervention-based approaches to prevent violence and manage reporting of potential threats.“This is a new policy for MNPS, even though we do have threat assessment teams,” said Director of Board of Education Relations and Management David Sevier. “It just codifies having threat assessment teams at a district level. We also have other threat assessment teams that assemble, when necessary, at school levels.”The director of schools will appoint each member of the team. Those members will also document behaviors and incidents that pose a risk to school safety or resulted in intervention.

Members of the Maury County Public Schools Board of Education narrowly voted down a much talked about application by American Classical Education (ACE) to open the county’s first public charter school.

A middle school and improved financial education are among the improvement’s residents in Memphis’ Orange Mound community say are desperately needed to improve the area’s challenges with racial inequity and generation poverty.Those suggestions came Wednesday evening during a community forum in Orange Mound for the More for Memphis initiative.

Leaders of American Classical Education (ACE) didn’t hold back their criticism of Jackson-Madison County school board members who voted down a proposal to establish the county’s first public charter school.Following the board’s 5-1 vote to deny Tuesday, ACE board member Dolores Gresham released a scathing press release that claimed the board ignored the voices of local families who want more school options.

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) District 5 school board member Christiane Buggs listed public charter school demographics as one reason why she planned to vote against an application to open Invictus Nashville Charter School. Any parents listening to her comments during Tuesday's board meeting came away with an inaccurate view of who public charter schools are actually serving.

Public charter schools haven’t exactly received the warmest of welcomes from the Metro Nashville Public Schools Board of Education in recent years, but Dr. Brenda Jones hopes to change that Tuesday night.Dr. Jones’ proposed Invictus Nashville Charter School is one of three charter applications board members will be deciding whether to approve. The board denied all three in the initial round of the approval process last April. That vote followed a similar denial of every proposed public charter school the year before.Jones hopes Invictus Nashville will find an easier path with its education model that focuses not just on academic outcomes, but social and emotional outcomes, opportunities for students to direct their education, and help students figure out what they want to do and what they can do to pursue their goals.

The halls of Cheatham County’s middle and high schools will look a bit different when students return August 7.  Students will no longer be carrying backpacks to class.

Members of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) Board of Education voted to deny four out of five applications Tuesday night from public charter schools vying to transition from the state’s Achievement School District (ASD) and into MSCS.The vote means an uncertain future for Humes Middle School, Martin Luther King Jr. College Preparatory High School, Cornerstone Prep Lester, and Fairley High School in the 2024/2025 school year. Each school could face closure, a merger into the district’s Izone turnaround school model, or potentially even remain open as public charter schools if leaders successfully appeal to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.Each of the five schools applying for transition to MSCS is doing so because the school is in the last year of a ten-year term with the Achievement School District. The ASD is an intervention run by the state to serve schools that are in the lowest five percent of schools, or a low achieving school across the state.

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) selected Christine Tran to represent her fellow MNPS students on the school board next year. Tran is a rising junior at the soon-to-open James Lawson High and former student of the recently closed Hillwood High School.