There are 62 article(s) tagged Achievement School District:
Two schools will exit the nearly defunct, state-run Achievement School District this summer. Their fates lie with MSCS officials, who have yet to decide if the schools will remain open or be closed.
Tennessee took over control of Kirby Middle School and Hillcrest High School over academic performance concerns. But the state’s Achievement School district yielded few gains, and now the schools will return to local control.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Memphis education landscape is among the topics discussed on this week’s “Behind The Headlines.”
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.
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.
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.
Southwest sold its Gill Center to education neighbors Libertas, who plan to renovate the building for a middle school expansion, the organizations announced Wednesday.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
The options could include entering new charter school agreements, closing schools, or moving some of its 9,000 students to higher-performing schools.
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.
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.