Literacy

MSCS leaders will pay outside company Reading Horizons over $540,000 for its dyslexia-specific tutoring curriculum. But one local literacy expert worries it won’t be enough to boost proficiency.

MSCS earned the highest score in the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System for the fourth year in a row. But younger students lost progress in social studies, falling behind expected growth.

MSCS board members voted not to pay for tutors from local nonprofit Literacy Mid-South in this year’s budget. They haven’t responded to a cheaper proposal from the CEO over a month ago.

The state’s largest district saw the biggest gains in elementary school reading proficiency and algebra scores. But the majority of third-graders still didn’t pass a critical reading test.

The state bet big on tutoring and summer learning programs after the pandemic.

Book banning action has escalated locally, not at the state level

Are the policies making students better readers? Some officials are encouraged.

Under an expanded state law, the removals have gone from ‘a trickle to a tidal wave,’ says one librarian

Teachers are to begin — and end — every class with a literacy-based activity.

Also removed: ‘Wicked’ and ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’

One librarian anonymously reported pulling 300 titles since the school year’s start.

Tutoring failed to lift math and reading grades in a study of 7,000 students

Tennessee’s Missy Testerman speaks out against classroom and library censorship, private school vouchers

46% proficiency rate is the highest since the state raised its academic standards in 2010.

Former librarian will lead panel that could decide which titles students statewide can access.

The revised policy also requires more tutoring for struggling readers who advance to fifth grade.

Lawmakers send bill to the governor, who signaled that he'll sign it

Senate and House still at odds over how to revise a 2021 reading and retention law

The proposal would widen criteria for determining which students could be held back — and give parents a say.

In a rare action, the state Board of Education passed a resolution questioning whether the 2021 law targets the right age group.