Leaders,

We are excited to share an incredible opportunity for your 3rd-grade students!

Tenn Under 10, powered by PNC and hosted by the Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation (GELF), selects 10 Tennessee 3rd graders each year to serve as GELF Literacy Ambassadors and receive a $2,000 post-secondary education scholarship. Honorees will be featured in GELF’s marketing and communications throughout the year, including video production, social media, and press outreach.

Who Qualifies?

• Must be a Tennessee 3rd grader during the 2025–2026 school year
• Enrolled in a Tennessee public or charter school
• Has overcome an obstacle related to literacy development or access to literacy resources
• Exhibits the four key values of Tenn Under 10

Important Details:

• Nomination Deadline: January 19, 2026
• Schools and districts may submit multiple nominations
• Applications must be submitted online by the school or district

Nominate a Student: https://dhsgbbf.wufoo.com/forms/zcli2i51o8mj3b/

Learn More: Program Details

Thank you for helping us celebrate Tennessee’s youngest learners and their literacy journeys! Please share this opportunity with your teachers and encourage nominations.

Leaders,

Greatness in the Gaps Walks for SEAs Supporting During-the-Day Tutoring: The remainder of the fall semester, Ms. Heba Sammour and Dr. Amy Maples will be out observing SEAs in action.  We will focus on the during-the-day tutoring instruction being provided by the SEAs.  The observation tool can be viewed via the following address:  https://tinyurl.com/3bn5m36u.

Spring Semester Preparations:  A voice-over presentation will be provided in December to ensure all building leaders are apprised of the upcoming action steps aligned with the Literacy Commitment compliance items.  This communication is disseminated in the following manner: emailed directly to the Leads, posted in LeaderBoard, and posted in Monday Memo.

The District's Spelling Bee is back! We’re encouraging all elementary and middle schools to host a school-level Spelling Bee and give students the chance to showcase their spelling skills and confidence on stage.

The MSCS Spelling Bee will highlight our spectacular spellers in grades 1-8. But first, they’ll need to win your school’s spelling bee by Friday, January 23, 2026. Now is the time to identify your Spelling Bee Coordinator and plan for e-x-c-e-l-l-e-n-c-e.

Sign-Up Here: Spelling Bee Intent to Participate 2025-26

If you have questions about how to get started, join us please let us know.

For more information about the Scripps National Spelling Bee, visit spellingbee.com/enrollment to learn more and register your school. Participation in the Scripps Bee is NOT required for participation in the MSCS Spelling Bee.

Thank you for all you do to create meaningful learning opportunities for our students and for helping them build confidence through friendly academic competition!

Should you have any questions, please contact Dr. Erin Y. Luster <lusterey@scsk12.org>.

We are excited to participate in this year's Do the Write Thing (DtWT) writing program. DtWT is a writing competition where middle school students share how violence has impacted them and propose solutions. We salute our 2025 National Ambassador from Hamilton K-8 School and our finalists from:

• A. Maceo Walker Middle School
• Colonial Middle School
• Grandview Heights Middle School
• John P. Freeman Optional School
• Hamilton K-8 School
• Mt. Pisgah Middle School

We are excited about this year's challenge and look forward to the submission of essays, poems, songs, plays and more! We are looking for submissions from every middle school this year.

Our students will have the opportunity to submit to the local competition and the winning essay will advance to the and national competition in Washington, D.C. This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase our students' talent and there is no cap on the number of submissions per school. Please share this information with your school teams to encourage participation.

Local Entry Information (Deadline: 12/15/25)

• Any form of written expression (e.g. essays, poems, plays, songs)
• Must address the following questions:
  • How has violence affected my life?
  • What are the causes of youth violence?
  • What can I do to reduce youth violence?
• Positive and non-derogatory language
• Fictional writings must be identified as such
• Strong preference will be given to non-fiction writings
• Credit must be given to outside sources
• Writings based upon plagiarism will not be considered

Completed packets may be sent to our office via MSCS Board Mail. Please be sure to include a summary page with the packet noting the contact person for your school and the number of submissions. Also, each submission should contain its own cover sheet with the parent/guardian's signature.

In addition to information on https://www.dtwt.org/, please review the MSCS Do the Write Thing Resources Folder.

For more information about the local implementation of the national program, please contact:

Ernest Brooks, II

Associate Deputy District Attorney/Senior Policy Advisor

Office of District Attorney General Steve Mulroy

201 Poplar Ave., 11th Floor Ernest.Brooks@scdag.com

(901) 222-1547 – Office

(901) 222-1300 – Main Office/Reception

(731) 293-4187

Should you have any questions, please contact Dr. Erin Y. Luster <lusterey@scsk12.org>.

Please ensure that you submit requests for interpretation support at events through the Ivanti work order system. If an event request is not submitted in advance, we cannot guarantee that support will be provided. Below are the steps to submit a request.

(Requests must be submitted at least seven (7) days in advance.) 

Interpretation Requests for non-Exceptional Education Department meetings: 

Visit the Ivanti Work Orders icon on the Edugoodies website or use the following link:

mscsk12-amc.ivanticloud.com:Service Catalog. 

Select Service Catalog 

On the left menu, click ESL 

Choose ESL Interpreter Request  

Document Translation Requests: 
Follow the same steps above and select ESL Translation Request. 

This includes options for translating all general school-based documents except transcripts. 

District-wide translations for Spanish are handled by the Bilingual Communications team within the Communications Department. To request this service, click on Communications on the left menu. 

Growth & Achievement containers are open for educators who transferred schools or were hired after the initial window closed on Monday, November 3. The containers will close Friday, November 21. 

Educators who did not make G & A selections during the initial window may also make selections during this time.   

If you have questions, please reach out to Employee Performance and Support by telephone: (901)-416-2475 or email: eps@scsk12.org.

The deadline to complete TEM Announced Observation #1 is Friday, December 5.

School Administrators (Principals, VP, and APs), Regional Superintendents and Assistant Superintendents may access their school's data using the following link: 

25-26 Evaluation KPI Dashboard

Questions? Please reach out via email: eps@scsk12.org or by telephone: (901) 416-2475.

The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) has released 2024–25 Educator Level of Overall Effectiveness (LOE) scores in TNCompass.

To receive an LOE score, all required component scores (depending on the evaluation type) must be present in TNCompass. Components may include:

1. Observation
2. Achievement
3. Growth
4. Professionalism
5. Student Perception Survey.

*LOE Generation/Evaluation Track Update

• Educators identified as Partial Year Exemption (PYE) will not receive an LOE score.
• Evaluation tracks have been updated in PLZ for educators who have generated LOE scores.
• Educators new to MSCS who have generated LOEs should email eps@scsk12.org to have their tracks updated.
• There are approximately 1,200 educators who have not generated LOE scores.  These educators selected achievement measures that have embargoed data.  Scores will be updated when the data is released.

*Best of All 

The “best of” option will apply to AGM-URS (K-2 ELA Teachers—IReady)  scores for the 2024-25 school year.  

• Educator level of overall effectiveness (LOE) scores based on TN-URS data, when available, will be used only if the scores are higher than LOE scores produced with the educator’s selected TVAAS composite growth score.
• Both LOE scores will be displayed in the TNCompass platform, but only the higher of the two will be used.

Due to challenges with CTE data submissions, a “best of” option is available for educators who have selected TVAAS CTE Concentrator or TVAAS CTE as their growth measures for the 2024-25 school year only. 

• The District will select another growth measure from available measures, as determined appropriate for that educator.

All SY24-25 evaluations in TN Compass should be finalized and signed by Personal Identification Number (PIN) by the Educator and Administrator by December 10, 2025.  The process must be initiated by the school Administrator.

If you have questions about missing component scores or other evaluation-related questions, please submit an Ivanti ticket so the EPS team may research the issue. Employees may use this ​​​​step sheet​​​​ ​​for information on how to submit a ticket. 

Hello Leaders,

We wanted to provide a brief update regarding our Leadership Labs schedule.

To allow everyone focused time to successfully navigate the critical closeout of the first semester, we will be pausing our Leadership Labs for December.

We look forward to reconvening and diving back into our collaborative work starting on Thursday, January 8, 2026!

Details regarding Lab topics/implementation framework, along with the PLZ codes, will be posted in the December Leaderboards.

Wishing you a strong and successful semester closeout!

Thank you for your active engagement during November's Leadership Development Week. Your contributions helped make it a meaningful and impactful experience. 

As a follow-up, please find the shared resource folder linked below for your continued reference and support: November LDW Resources

If you would like to access previous LDW resources, please use this link: 2025-2026 LDW Resources

Important Update: There will not be a full week of Leadership Development sessions in December. Instead, we will hold one meeting exclusively for Principals. Other leadership groups will not participate in this meeting.

Contact Us: performanceandleadership@scsk12.org 

Canvas courses have been reopened until Friday, December 5. Completed courses will not populate to PLZ transcripts until the window closes. During the week of December 8, teachers should resubmit their PLZ transcript to the principal or her/his designee for review. 

🚨 Critical Reminder: Required Submissions for ILT Stipends

To ensure all ILT members receive their stipend payments before the holiday break, we need your immediate attention and cooperation on two critical submission deadlines.

Please ensure the following two documents are submitted no later than December 8th:

• Fall 2025 ILT Teacher Logs (with principal signature on each line)
• ILT Stipend Bi-Weekly Excel Sheet (with principal signature)

⚠️ Important Stipend Payment Notice:

If these required documents are not submitted by the December 8th deadline, the corresponding ILT members will unfortunately not receive their stipend payment before the holidays. Our payroll processing timeline is strict, and late submissions will necessitate payment in the following cycle.

We understand the workload during this time of year, and we are here to support you in meeting this crucial deadline collaboratively. Please reach out immediately if you foresee any challenges completing these submissions by December 8th, so we can work together to find a solution.

 Flyer: December ILT Flyer Updated 11.20.25.pdf

Contact Manager Ron Clark @ scsiltstipends@scsk12.org for support and guidance.