The Tennessean

Alternative program to cost Metro millions
$2.5 million alternative program will teach about 500 Metro students in small-class settings outside of their zoned schools.

Soaring fuel prices will cost Middle Tennessee school systems hundreds of thousands of dollars more just to keep buses running until the end of the school year. To save fuel, bus drivers are being asked not to run their engines when they are parked, even for a short time.

Grad rate discrepancies prompt national change in calculation

Freshman academies, which separate ninth-graders from upperclassmen, have helped some Metro schools cut down on failing grades and increase attendance but made little or no impact at others, according to a recent school district study.

Government health officials this week conceded that childhood vaccines worsened a rare, underlying disorder that ultimately led to autism-like symptoms in a 9-year-old Georgia girl, and that she should be paid from a federal vaccine-injury fund.

The Dream Act would let undocumented students enter public colleges and universities and would even hold out a possibility of in-state tuition

In two weeks, legislators take up whether to renew the 2002 legislation that created them. Their debate comes as some Metro officials are looking to charter schools — run with public money but without the bureaucracy — as part of the solution to failing test scores and a state takeover.

Four-year-olds at Fall-Hamilton Elementary School recite the day of the week, the month and weather conditions as part of their morning routine. Sitting on a carpet, they review a couple dozen letters on flash cards. They listen to a story and answer questions about the plot and characters.

A proposal to ban elementary and middle schools from teaching about anything other than heterosexuality was angrily derided in a legislative committee on Tuesday as nothing more than an election-year stunt.

Preliminary budget estimates show it will take about $13 million and 200 new positions to help the district meet state requirements for the first time in four years. That's in addition to the $616.8 million needed to continue what the district's already doing.

Tennessee's education commissioner who expandedpre-kindergarten and helped usher in No Child Left Behind accountability to the state resigned her post Thursday.

State Superintendent Paul Pastorek told the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board on Tuesday he is open to suggestions about how to fix as many as four low-performing schools in the parish, but will not agree to continue running the schools as is.

State-mandated bonuses to help recruit tough-to-find teachers and reward great ones will look different from district to district in Tennessee.

Educators optimistic that changes would be made to the federal No Child Left Behind law easing some of its strict requirements are leaving hope behind.

Wilson suit shows First Amendment can be tightrope
All Lee Miller wanted to do was be a good parent. When his son approached school age, Miller and his wife, Jana, moved closer to Lakeview Elementary School in Mt. Juliet. The school had an excellent academic reputation and, more importantly, welcomed community input.