Memphis-Shelby County Schools has a lot going on. Here are 5 things to watch.
MSCS board members start another academic year with a temporary district leader, as state takeovers loom, school closures are expected, and new policies could take hold.
Topic: Achievement School District
RSSThere are 60 article(s) tagged Achievement School District:
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August 2025
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July 2025
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Board refuses last remaining ASD schools’ applications to become charters
MSCS rejected requests for Kirby Middle and Hillcrest High to become district charter schools once their ASD terms end. The denials could carry consequences, under a new state law.
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May 2025
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Shaping Frayser’s future: Libertas breaks ground on middle school campus
Construction begins on the public Montessori school’s $7.5 million expansion, revamping Southwest Tennessee Community College’s former Gill Campus building into a middle school with a kitchen and workshop for students.
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Sell, lease, donate, demolish: MSCS may repurpose 10 buildings
Half of the deals would keep current charter school tenants in their buildings. Another Memphis-Shelby County Schools building could be a warehouse, and Elvis Presley’s alma mater could go to New Ballet Ensemble and School.
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April 2025
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New MSCS leader contract, school construction and state takeover
The Memphis education landscape is among the topics discussed on this week’s “Behind The Headlines.”
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March 2025
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State could scrap Achievement School District for new approach
The proposal calls for dissolving the ASD by the summer and implementing a new model by the next school year. In the most severe cases, it could mean the state-mandated closure of a chronically low-performing school.
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February 2025
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Tennessee’s shrinking Achievement School District set to make its move
The operator of the last charter schools in the Tennessee’s turnaround district asks to continue managing them under Memphis-Shelby County Schools before state takeover.
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November 2024
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How two Frayser schools learned ‘what it feels like to win’
At Hawkins Mill Elementary, chronic absenteeism plummeted. And at Trezevant High, graduation rates climbed closer to the district average. Both had been among Tennessee’s bottom 5% for over a decade.
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July 2024
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Southwest Tennessee Community College sells Frayser campus
Southwest sold its Gill Center to education neighbors Libertas, who plan to renovate the building for a middle school expansion, the organizations announced Wednesday.
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North Memphis school set for closure will stay open under MSCS
MSCS Superintendent Marie Feagins says Caldwell-Guthrie Elementary School, shuttered last week by its state-takeover operators, will stay open this fall and expand to take on students from Humes Middle School. MSCS closed Humes earlier this spring.
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June 2024
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What the state says went wrong at Memphis Scholars’ charter schools
Findings from the state-run Achievement School District showed “serious noncompliance and material violations of the charter agreement” by Memphis Scholars, revealing additional information about the abrupt closure of the operators three charter schools.
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Three Memphis charter schools set for abrupt closure
Charter operator Memphis Scholars received a violation from Tennessee’s Achievement School District, prompting a board vote to close three schools that serve more than 400 students in North and South Memphis.
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February 2024
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Top Tennessee lawmakers want to end Achievement School District
A 2023 study found the turnaround district’s effectiveness to be “indistinguishable from zero.” It could be closed as part of the legislation establishing a universal private school voucher program — but what would replace it is still unclear.
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April 2023
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Hanley Elementary stakeholders want to stay in Achievement School District
“We want to keep Hanley in Journey Community Schools because we think it’s the best option for our students, families and community,” said Nickalous Manning, executive director of Journey Community Schools.
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December 2021
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About Town: ASD releases 4 Frayser schools but it has little to do with gains
Four Frayser schools will soon return to Shelby County Schools after a 10-year turnover with the Achievement School District, run by the Tennessee Department of Education.
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Four Frayser schools return to SCS after 10-year takeover
Frayser Achievement Elementary School, Corning Achievement Elementary School, Georgian Hills Achievement Elementary School and Whitney Achievement School will rejoin SCS for the 2022-2023 school year.
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November 2021
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Harris adviser among finalists for TDOE turnaround superintendent
Among three finalists for the Tennessee Department of Education position is Cedrick Gray, a longtime Memphis educator who currently serves as director of education for Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris’ office.
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January 2021
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Tennessee again delays hiring school turnaround superintendent
Victoria Robinson, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education, said the job won’t be filled “at this time due to budget and other uncertainties.”
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December 2020
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State-run school district hosting food giveaway in Frayser Thursday
The event begins 10 a.m. Thursday at 1602 Dellwood Ave., in the parking lot between Frayser Corning Elementary and Martin Luther King College Prep, two FCS schools operated under ASD.
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Tennessee unveils plan to move struggling schools out of its failed program to rescue them
The options could include entering new charter school agreements, closing schools, or moving some of its 9,000 students to higher-performing schools.
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November 2020
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State mulls how to exit schools from its turnaround district
The legislature gave the state education department until Jan. 1 to come up with its blueprint for 27 schools and about 8,000 students to leave the Achievement School District and return to their local systems in Memphis and Nashville.
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October 2020
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Tennessee delays schools exiting Achievement School District
The schools that Tennessee took over in the last decade can begin to return to their local districts in Memphis and Nashville in 2024 instead of 2022 as proposed earlier this year.
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July 2020
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Shelby County Schools board contenders discuss pandemic, state testing and ASD transition
The responses from candidates in the five school board races on the Aug. 6 ballot got lively during two forums sponsored by Chalkbeat Tennessee and the social justice organization MICAH.
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March 2020
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State basketball tournaments canceled for coronavirus
State basketball tournaments are latest cancellations with COVID-19.
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Behind the Headlines Podcast: Journalist round table
Toby Sells with the Memphis Flyer, Karanja Ajanaku with the New Tri-State Defender and Laura Faith Kebede with Chalkbeat TN join host Eric Barnes and Bill Dries with The Daily Memphian to discuss the current legislative session and the budget shortfall for Shelby County and Memphis’ sales-tax increase.
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