Welcome to Chalkbeat Tennessee, your new home for education news

Dear readers,

We are very excited to introduce Chalkbeat Tennessee, a news site focused on delivering you the most relevant news about education policy and practice right here in our community.

Since first soft-launching in October, we have leapt right to work, hiring two reporters, writing stories about lots of change in Shelby County Schools and the Achievement School District, and (as you can see) building a lovely new website to improve your reading experience.

This is an exciting period for Tennessee schools. In 2010, as part of the Race to the Top initiative, Tennessee received $501 million to fund several initiatives to turn around low-performing schools, improve teacher quality, and provide more school choice for students. Meanwhile, less than a year after Shelby County Schools underwent one of the largest school system mergers in the country, six municipalities are splitting to form their own school systems.

To hone our efforts, we have selected three areas of focus that each of our reporters will cover over the next year: implementation of the Common Core, admissions and enrollment, and efforts to improve teachers’ effectiveness.

  • Tennessee’s adoption of Common Core has fundamentally changed what students learn in the classroom. Our entire team will be exploring how those changes affect teachers’ jobs, schools’ test scores, and taxpayers’ pockets.
  • Tennessee’s legislature has opened the doors to the creation of new school districts, charter schools, and a state-run district. That’s created more choice for parents. Jaclyn Zubrzycki will be exploring how parents navigate those choices and what these changes mean for the state’s lowest-performing students.
  • Finally, Tennessee’s teachers are undergoing dramatic changes in how they’re hired, placed, supported, and evaluated. Tajuana Cheshier will be reporting on how effective those efforts are in improving Tennessee’s teaching force.

But our stories will be strongest if we get your help. Here are a few ways to pitch in:

First, meet our community editor, Tajuana Cheshier, who will be creating more opportunities for you to interact with our reporters, share your experiences, and help deepen our coverage of public schools. To start, please consider submitting to our new First Person section, which will highlight the experiences of teachers, administrators, students, policymakers, and parents. To find out more or pitch an idea, e-mail Tajuana at tcheshier@chalkbeat.org.

Another way to share your experiences and thoughts with us is through our comments section. Here is a look at our comments policy, which we will be enforcing aggressively with the help of our engagement director, Anika Anand. We want Chalkbeat Tennessee to be a place where educators, policymakers, and families can come to voice their concerns, talk to one another and ultimately, act in a way that leads to better schools for everyone. So please, be courteous and respectful in your comments so that we can all learn something from each other.

Here are some other ways to stay up to date on our reporting and help us make our reporting the best it can be:

  • Sign up for our morning Rise & Shine newsletter, which includes the day’s major education Tennessee and national headlines.
  • Follow us on Twitter  and Like us on Facebook
  • Got a story idea for us? Send an e-mail to tn.tips@chalkbeat.org
  • Fill out our survey to tell us what stories you want to read and learn more about Chalkbeat.

Happy reading,

Daarel Burnette II, Chalkbeat Tennessee bureau chief

Elizabeth Green, Chalkbeat editor-in-chief