Tennessee
Teen pregnancy and STI rates show Tennessee has a sex ed health crisis
If more schools participated in teaching medically accurate information about these topics, Tennessee would reduce teen pregnancies and sexually-trasmitted infections.
Supporters advocate for fact-based sex education for MA youth
Jaclyn Friedman of the Healthy Youth Act Coalition, exhorts supporters to urge state representatives to pass the bill, already passed by the Senate
Kinga Borondy, wickedlocal.com
Sex education is not mandated in Tennessee public schools, and if schools decide to provide education, the curriculum is not required to be comprehensive.
The only exception is for schools located in counties where the pregnancy rate exceeds 19.5/1,000 for females aged 15-17, which by 2018 data, includes at least 20 counties in our state.
These schools are only required to teach a family life education program, which must promote topics like abstinence and reserving the expression of sexual activity for marriage. Despite being a harm reduction method, contraceptive options such as condoms and oral contraceptive pills are not required to be taught. Instead, schools are required to inform students about the process and benefits of adoption.
Additionally, in these counties, parents and guardians have the option to remove their children from any type of sexual education curriculum, and as of 2021 this includes LGBTQ-related instruction.
Tennessee ranks near the bottom of state on key indicators
Teen sexual health in Tennessee lags behind other states. In Tennessee, only 32.2% of high schools taught students all 20 critical sexual health education topics outlined by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), as compared to 33% of schools in Georgia and 65.9% of schools in California.
Tennessee is ranked 44th out of the 50 states in rates of teen pregnancy at 21.5 per thousand, with the national average being 13.5 per thousand. Georgia is not far behind at 36th and California is ranked 12th.
Increased rates of teen pregnancy are strongly correlated with higher rates of unemployment, leaving school before completion of a high school degree, and poverty. Teen pregnancies are also associated with worse maternal health outcomes including increased risk for maternal depression and intimate partner violence in the pregnancy periods.
The harms of inadequate sexual education for teens are not limited to unplanned pregnancies. One in six high school-aged females reported intimate partner violence in 2019, which is the highest across the U.S. and is nearly double the national average.
As of 2021, the average number of teens ages 15-17 who were diagnosed with chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis, all sexually-transmitted infections (STIs), was 16.6 per 1,000. These adverse events associated with poor teen sexual health education demonstrate the need for a more robust education approach in Tennessee.
Why holistic sex education benefits young people
Comprehensive sex education is associated with numerous health benefits for teenagers. According to a study conducted at New York University, increased federal funding for more comprehensive sex education led to a 3% reduction in teen pregnancies at the county level.
Furthermore, a landmark CDC study investigated the relationship between comprehensive risk reduction programs, abstinence education programs, and risk of adolescent pregnancy, HIV, and STI’s.
The study found that comprehensive risk reduction programs were effective in reducing both teen pregnancy rates and the acquisition of STIs.
A number of other studies have also shown that abstinence-only programs are ineffective at reducing both teen pregnancy and STI risk.
Thus, even if sexual education curricula are not required by state law, more schools that participate in teaching medically accurate information about these topics will reduce teen pregnancies and STIs.
Nikita Bastin, Avery Bogart, Zoe Finer, Jeewoo Kim and Jessie Sims are medical students in Nashville. The views expressed by the authors are personal in nature and are not intended to represent the views of their institution.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Isolated showers and storms over the next few days will make for more brilliant color displays across the sky.
Rainbows have been very common across Middle Tennessee for several evenings now. With all the recent rain, conditions have been ideal for fabulous displays of brilliant colors. Some of you have even reported seeing double rainbows. WSMV4 viewer, Leslie Whited, captured the one above, early Tuesday evening, July 14th.
To find out how double rainbows form, let’s first examine how a single rainbow occurs.
Single rainbows form when the sun, positioned behind you, has its light refracted through raindrops ahead of you.
Those raindrops bend sunlight as it passes into the drops. Then, some of that light reflects off the back of the drop and is bent one more time as it exits the drop. That entire process is called single reflection. Single reflection produces the primary or brightest rainbow.
Sometimes, some light reflects twice while in a raindrop before exiting. This is called double reflection. Double reflection produces a secondary rainbow. The order of colors within a secondary rainbow is a mirror image of the primary rainbow (i.e. the reverse). Secondary rainbows are not as bright as primary rainbows because less light is double reflected than is single reflected (i.e. some light is lost or attenuated every time light is reflected). Notice the fainter secondary rainbow in Leslie Whited’s double rainbow/storm picture at the top of this article.
The ideal time to see a rainbow is when the sun is relatively low in the sky (and has the best chance of being at your back). That translates to early morning or evening. Since in our current weather pattern, showers and storms are most numerous during the late afternoon and evening, that’s when you’ll have the best chance of seeing a rainbow through the rest of this week. If you’re very lucky, you might even see a double rainbow.
Happy sky watching!
For life-saving weather alerts, customized messages on conditions and forecasts, and videos detailing upcoming weather events, download the WSMV 4 First Alert Weather app for iPhone or Android. Have weather pictures or videos? Share them here.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – A Tennessee school district is crediting an AI teaching assistant program with helping students improve their TCAP English Language Arts (ELA) scores.
Scott Langford, the director of schools for Sumner County, said in a press release that a preliminary report shows that education tech company CourseMojo has been helping maintain student engagement “at the most rigorous point of the lesson.”
“Students take ownership of their own learning while teachers can measure individual student progress in real-time,” Langford said. “Teachers benefit from the feedback to connect students to the standards included in each activity.”
Sumner County schools conducted a pilot test of CourseMojo for sixth graders in six schools during the 2024-2025 school year. After finding an average 8 percentage point increase on the TCAP ELA assessment for those students, they decided to expand the program’s use to all middle school grades last academic year.
While usage of Coursemojo varied across schools, a preliminary analysis of the district’s 2026 TCAP ELA assessment data showed that groups with an average of 25 or more Coursemojo activities per student improved ELA proficiency by an average of 3.7 percentage points. Groups with little or no use of the program saw -0.2 percentage points during those assessments, the district said.
Eighth-graders had the “strongest gains,” the district said, after “stagnant performance for the last several years.” According to the district, those students who had an average of 25 or more Coursemojo activities had an average increase of 8.7 percentage points in proficiency.
Dacia Toll, co-founder and co-CEO of Coursemjojo, said that the “technology alone doesn’t improve student outcomes,” but that the success depends on how educators implement tools.
“Sumner County Schools has been incredibly thoughtful about integrating Coursemojo while keeping rigorous curriculum and great teaching at the center,” Toll said. “We’re proud to partner with a district that’s so committed to their own learning and to helping every student succeed.”
While the district boasts improved proficiency with the AI tool, it also said that its preliminary findings compare outcomes among school-grade groups with different levels of implementation, “rather than against schools that did not use the platform.”
More analyses are expected to be done with the final TCAP data.
Even with the help of the AI tool, the district was not the top in the state for proficiency increase in its TCAP ELA scores, according to state data.
However, district TCAP results show that from 2024 to 2026, the percentage of middle school students not meeting expectations decreased from 54.7% to 51.9%. The number of students meeting or exceeding expectations increased from 45.3% in 2024 to 48.1% in 2026 for ELA.
While that is an improvement, it remains unclear the exact influence Coursemojo had on those scores. And overall, the results show that less than half of Sumner County middle schoolers are proficient in ELA — a result that echoes statewide.
Copyright 2026 WSMV. All rights reserved.
The Tennessee Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at July 13, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from July 13 drawing
05-25-36-40-48, Powerball: 03, Power Play: 2
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lotto America numbers from July 13 drawing
06-07-24-29-51, Star Ball: 04, ASB: 02
Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Cash 3 numbers from July 13 drawing
Morning: 2-1-5, Wild: 0
Midday: 9-7-0, Wild: 7
Evening: 3-0-2, Wild: 0
Check Cash 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Cash 4 numbers from July 13 drawing
Morning: 3-9-1-4, Wild: 1
Midday: 2-1-2-3, Wild: 2
Evening: 1-8-7-5, Wild: 9
Check Cash 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Daily Tennessee Jackpot numbers from July 13 drawing
13-17-20-22-31
Check Daily Tennessee Jackpot payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Tennessee Cash numbers from July 13 drawing
10-26-29-32-34, Bonus: 04
Check Tennessee Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Powerball Double Play numbers from July 13 drawing
01-17-31-39-43, Powerball: 22
Check Powerball Double Play payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from July 13 drawing
19-36-38-43-48, Bonus: 03
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your lottery prize
All Tennessee Lottery retailers will redeem prizes up to $599.
For prizes over $599, winners can submit winning tickets through the mail or in person at Tennessee Lottery offices. By mail, send a winner claim form, winning lottery ticket, a copy of a government-issued ID and proof of social security number to P.O. Box 290636, Nashville, TN 37229. Prize claims less than $600 do not require a claim form. Please include contact information on prizes claimed by mail in the event we need to contact you.
To submit in person, sign the back of your ticket, fill out a winner claim form and deliver the form, along with the ticket and government-issued ID and proof of social security number to any of these locations:
Nashville Headquarters & Claim Center: 26 Century Blvd., Nashville, TN 37214, 615-254-4946 in the (615) and (629) area, 901-466-4946 in the (901) area, 865-512-4946 in the (865) area, 423-939-7529 in the (423) area or 1-877-786-7529 (all other areas in Tennessee). Outside Tennessee, dial 615-254-4946. Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. This office can cash prizes of any amount.
Knoxville District Office: Cedar Springs Shopping Center, 9298 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37922, (865) 251-1900. Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. This office can cash prizes up to $199,999.
Chattanooga District Office: 2020 Gunbarrel Rd., Suite 106, Chattanooga, TN 37421, (423) 308-3610. Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. This office can cash prizes up to $199,999.
Memphis District Office: Chiles Plaza, 7424 U.S. Highway 64, Suite 104, Memphis, TN 38133, (901) 322-8520. Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. This office can cash prizes up to $199,999.
Check previous winning numbers and payouts at https://tnlottery.com/.
When are the Tennessee Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10:00 p.m. CT Tuesday and Friday.
- Cash 3, 4: Daily at 9:28 a.m. (Morning) and 12:28 p.m. CT (Midday), except for Sunday. Evening game daily, seven days a week, at 6:28 p.m. CT.
- Daily Tennessee Jackpot: 9:00 p.m. CT daily.
- Tennessee Cash: 10:34 p.m. CT Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
- Powerball Double Play: 10:30 p.m. CT Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Tennessean editor. You can send feedback using this form.
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