Laura Kebede-Twumasi

Amid the flurry of commemorations and speeches in 2018 near the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in Memphis, the Tennessee legislature created a center to collect information about unresolved hate crimes in the state…

This story is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Commercial Appeal. Seeking a new way to boost students’ reading skills at a crucial time, Shelby County Schools officials are betting big on a different kind of program that has shown positive…

As students in Shelby County Schools finished their first week at home because of coronavirus-forced closures, school board members met privately by video-conference Friday in part to hear about the state’s recent guidance on providing special…

Shelby County Schools’ interim superintendent Joris Ray was only three years out of college when his principal pulled him out of the classroom to help establish a more welcoming and stable culture in the school building. It was 1999, the year Kirby…

Hidden behind what Memphis education officials have said is good news when it comes to student discipline is a disturbing trend: As short-term suspensions have decreased, expulsions have increased. Last year, Shelby County Schools handed down nearly…

At least four teachers and a school counselor have accused a Memphis principal of pressuring them to promote or graduate students who were failing, according to Chalkbeat’s review of his personnel file. The teachers said Kingsbury High School…

As Shelby County Schools embarks on a process to cut costs by closing schools, two dozen Memphis schools already have three strikes against them. Twenty-five schools have test scores so low that the state could require them to be overhauled; enroll…