Tennessee students logged nearly 940,000 minutes this summer in the Tristar Reads contest, with four winners each earning $1,000 scholarships for their outstanding reading achievements.

Tennessee’s college-going rate for the Class of 2024 has dropped to 56 percent, with the steepest declines among minority and low-income students.

Metro Schools Superintendent Adrienne Battle received a standing ovation at GEODIS Park Monday as she highlighted the district’s record-setting academic growth, including a fourth consecutive TVAAS Level 5 distinction and an 85.7% graduation rate.

New research by the Tennessee Charter School Center found public charter school students, including those in Nashville and Memphis, are making more academic progress than their peers in traditional public schools.

In a video posted on his campaign website, Fritts attempted to distance himself from fellow Republican gubernatorial candidates Congressman John Rose and Senator Marsha Blackburn by pledging to oppose what he calls the “Nashville establishment.” 

In an interview with the Tennessee Firefly’s On the Fly podcast, Rose said he’d be open to tweaks to assessments and evaluations, but believes the state should “keep on keeping on” with both systems that polling has shown Republican voters support.

Extreme weather, rising temperatures, and other environmental changes are affecting how Tennessee students learn and thrive, and experts say action is needed now.

Lawmakers passed the legislation last year, requiring every public school district in the state to develop an age-appropriate curriculum for all grade levels, including kindergarteners.

Virtual students in Tennessee are causing unexpected distortions in how the state calculates school funding, according to findings presented Thursday by the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR).

Beginning this school year, the district plans to recalculate each transfer student’s grade point average (GPA) from their prior schools using Williamson County Schools’ weighted scale for honors and other higher-level courses.

Tennessee’s two largest school districts, Metro Nashville Public Schools and Memphis-Shelby County Schools, posted historic academic growth for the fourth year in a row, earning the state’s top rating on student progress in 2025, according to new Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) results.

Commissioners unanimously voted to reverse the Metro Nashville Board of Education’s June decision denying The Rock Academy’s application and upheld the board’s denial of The Forge School on a split 5-3 vote.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) reported that they completed 9,055 infrastructure work orders over the summer at the district’s school board meeting Tuesday, despite several infrastructure issues at start-of-school-year.

Students at The Forge School will begin working on career certifications as early as the sixth grade, and their academic journey will include job shadowing and internships with school partners to help prepare for a career immediately after high school or college.

The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) announced Dr. Brandi De La Cruz, a mathematics teacher at Collierville High School, as the 2025–26 Tennessee Teacher of the Year.

If approved by the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission, The Rock Academy would open in 2026 with an initial class of 88 freshmen and then add a grade each year.

Blackburn told supporters she plans to do four things “extremely well” if elected governor - keep taxes low, simplify licensing requirements, ensure government regulation is light, and provide businesses with a well-trained workforce.

Wilson County School Board members approved a new health insurance plan for 2026 that will increase employee contributions by at least $600 annually.

As Tennessee education leaders are moving forward with major changes to teacher licensure requirements, state legislators emphasized the need for these measures to be paired with strong accountability measures and targeted support to ensure teacher quality Wednesday morning.

Currently, 96 percent of teachers receive a level of effectiveness of meeting expectations or higher on the Tennessee Educator Acceleration Model (TEAM) evaluation system.