The Tennessee State Board of Education approved a broad set of rule changes, academic standards and instructional-material decisions at its out-of-town session, carrying multiple items on final reading and scheduling additional work for outstanding questions.

Major approvals included amendments to the educator licensure rule to recognize degrees accredited by accreditors recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) or the U.S. Department of Education; educator preparation rule revisions governing EPP approval, admissions and clinical practice (the board signaled intent to advance further changes — including a recommendation to remove edTPA — at a later meeting); and updates to professional-assessment policy (5.105).

Curriculum and standards decisions: the board approved revised Career & Technical Education (CTE) course standards (including a new energy & sustainable-resources cluster with nuclear energy courses), fine-arts standards updates, updated health-education standards (adding technology/internet-crime topics for grades 9–12 in line with recent law), a middle-grades policy adding a required middle-school computer-science course, and revisions to promotion/retention rules (including a conference pathway and parental retention provisions for early grades).

Textbooks and instructional materials: the board adopted the recommended Section D science textbook list after advisory-panel review and approved a waiver request from Houston County Schools to use Founders Academy materials for multiple virtual high-school math courses until the next math-adoption cycle.

Accountability items: the Department presented lists of 377 reward schools, ten exemplary districts and ten districts identified as in need of improvement (bottom 5% statewide); the board approved all lists.

Other items and procedure: the board repealed an obsolete school-safety rule to avoid duplicating recent statutory requirements under the SAVE Act; it also approved final updates to universal screening and benchmark-assessment rules to align with legislative changes that removed a pretest requirement for summer learning programs. The board accepted staff requests to correct a minor typographical error in a promotion/retention subsection and instructed staff to prepare additional materials for an upcoming special called meeting on Dec. 18 to address opportunity-charter accountability and an emergency rule.

Voting record (selected items): automatic licensure revocations approved (roll call: 10 ayes); teacher licensure discipline consent agenda approved (roll call: 10 ayes); educator licensure rule (final) approved (roll call: 10 ayes); educator preparation rule revisions approved (roll call: 10 ayes); residential mental-health facilities rule (final) approved (roll call: 10 ayes); science textbooks approved (voice); Houston County Founders Academy waiver approved (voice). Several items passed without recorded dissent; where members asked for further work, staff will report back.

The board also scheduled a virtual special called meeting for Dec. 18 to take up opportunity-charter accountability and an emergency rule, and members requested future briefings on artificial intelligence and on the training regimen for teachers tied to discipline cases.

Next steps: staff will finalize guidance on implementation of rule changes, circulate further legal analysis on outstanding discipline questions, convene stakeholder outreach where requested and prepare materials for the December special meeting.