Teaching shouldn't be done in isolation, and no one knows this better than educators in China. Now a teacher peer observation program from Shanghai is being piloted in Collierville.

How does a beleaguered school district eat an elephant? One bite at a time, according to Shelby County Schools Superintendent Dorsey Hopson, who this week unveiled the district’s strategic plan to implement change and meet goals

The Memphis City Council voted 10-0 Tuesday to approve a $41.8 million settlement and end a six-year funding dispute over local schools. The agreement now goes to the Shelby County School Board, which is expected to sign off on the settlement at its next business meeting on Jan. 27, or at a special session this week.

Relay Graduate School of Education's application to launch its one-year teacher residency program at the University of Memphis received committee approval on Thursday. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission is expected to take up the matter on Jan. 29.

A new performance-based pay plan concerns teachers who have lots of questions about its long-term implications.

Alcy Elementary held its 7th annual Read Around the Christmas Tree earlier this month to encourage its students, about 300 of them, to have strong literacy skills.

Heidi Ramirez, who was appointed Shelby County Schools chief academic officer in October, is planning an offensive against the low literacy levels that plague Memphis students and are seen as holding the city’s economic development back. Only a third of students in kindergarten through third grade are reading on grade level, according to the 2014 state report card, and advocacy groups estimate that about a quarter of adults in Memphis are functionally illiterate.

Shelby County Schools could receive $43 million in a negotiated school funding settlement, but first city council must approve. The city has disputed Memphis City School's claim that it was shorted $57 million in 2008-09. The lawsuit has dragged on for six years with two courts siding with the school district. Superintendent Dorsey Hopson said if the money comes, the first payment, $6 million by Feb.1 ,2015, will be used to help the district's Innovation Zone, for low performing schools.

At least three of four charter schools Shelby County Schools will shutter for low performance next spring say they will fight to keep their schools open, even though they don't have a right to a formal appeal under state law.

A week after a contentious faculty meeting, University of Memphis President David Rudd is trying to quell concerns about the school's involvement in a new teacher training program that would place more teachers in low-performing schools. In a letter to the faculty, Rudd emphasizes that the new program, Relay Graduate