January 18, 2021
This week, the Tennessee General Assembly is convening for a special legislative session on education. At TSS, we’re advocating for the passage of long-overdue strategies to improve the state’s literacy rates.
With nearly 80 percent of students of color and around 650,000 total students reading below grade level, the time to take action is now. Literacy is foundational for the future of our students and our state. Governor Bill Lee’s Tennessee Literacy Success Act will give our students the reading skills they need for success, teachers the resources they need to help our students, and our state results that last a lifetime.
Head to www.tnlitnow.com to learn more and let your legislator know that there is no time to waste in helping our students succeed.
The Tennessee General Assembly will begin their special legislative session on education tomorrow to address Tennessee’s literacy crisis and pandemic-related challenges attributed to student learning loss. The special session is expected to last all week. Governor Bill Lee and the Tennessee Department of Education released a package last week announcing legislation to address learning loss, reading, accountability, and teacher pay.
The first week of regular session concluded with the announcement of both the House and Senate Education Committee appointments.
Click here to view the full Senate Education Committee.
Click here to view the House Standing Education Committee on Education Administration. Click here to view the House Standing Education Committee on Education Instruction.
For more information, visit the Tennessee Capitol’s website here.
Over the past year, six Tennessee PBS stations have provided families and students across the state with high-quality material and support to aid teachers and families with remote learning because of the coronavirus pandemic. Recently, the state announced an award of $1 million to these PBS stations “to support the critical role our public television stations have played, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, to engage families and provide access to educational resources and supports,” said Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn.
PBS has continued to provide support in recent months through their Winter Foundations Bootcamp, which focuses on literacy and math foundational skills for Pre-K through 2nd-grade students with additional content on science. Learn more about this award and PBS’ contribution here.