Observations from a year in Memphis City Schools
http://tri-statedefenderonline.com/articlelive/articles/4017/1/br-Observations-from-a-year-in-Memphis-City-Schools/Page1.html
By Tri-State Defender Newsroom
Published on 08/6/2009
Dr. Kriner Cash discusses the state of the school district.
Observations from a year in Memphis City Schools
by Dr. Kriner Cash
Special to the Tri-State Defender
Recently, I gave two data-rich presentations about the state of the school district to the Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners at the Board’s annual retreat. The Commissioners were gracious in their comments about the quality and depth of the material presented, but encouraged me to tell the story to a broader audience through an op-ed column. Board Commissioner Rev. Kenneth T. Whalum Jr. summed up the Board’s sentiments: “Everybody needs to hear this story.”
“When I first arrived in Memphis last July, I knew the best way to understand the task I faced was to collect as much data as possible about the district. With extensive answers to 60 guiding questions (see the MCS website for the full list), our team saw that there were six serious factors or “fault lines” in the district: 1) a majority of our students were coming to kindergarten without pre-K literacy and mathematic skills; 2) a myriad of health issues were preventing tens of thousands of our students from their best work; 3) more than 30,000 students were overage for grade; 4) safety and discipline issues needed immediate attention to address a rising tide of violence; 5) one in three of our students changed schools at least once during the school year; and 6) the district was losing on average 3,000 students each year to other districts, private schools, and home schooling.
“Since last July, I have come to realize that Memphis faces unique challenges that go far beyond the walls of our schools, but certainly shape what happens behind them. Among the 50 largest cities in the nation, Memphis has the highest poverty rate, approximately 18 percent, with many of our children living in extreme poverty. No other city comes close. The percentage of college graduates in Memphis is below 24 percent, a figure in the lowest quartile. And perhaps most problematic of all, the economic segregation in Memphis is crushing: in an $87 billion local economy, minority businesses generate only $1.3 billion (1.5 percent) of the total. In a sense, these factors create what amounts to a perfect storm of challenges for the city in general and for Memphis City Schools in particular.
“With this knowledge in hand, we began an extensive program of work that covered a broad array of initiatives. Each of the initiatives was aligned to one or more of the six fault lines, the Board’s Theory of Action, and the district’s six strategic goals. In brief summary, here are a few of the items I outlined for the Board for each of the goals:
“Goal 1: Student Achievement – To accelerate the academic performance of all students, we started 29 new Pre-K classrooms; provided remediation and instructional enrichment to more than 65,000 students in web-based Stanford Math (www.epgy.stanford.edu) – the district’s math intervention; served more than 2,500 students through the Memphis Literacy Corps; grew participation in the online e-Learning program by more than 1,000 students; and fostered a 49 percent increase in dual enrollment, where students take coursework on a college campus and earn high school credit simultaneously.
“Goal 2: Accountability – We strengthened the district’s accountability system by: establishing regions for district schools and support offices; following strict accounting practices that received a clean bill of health from external fiscal auditors; “fresh starting” the Central Nutrition Center which resulted in an excellent review from USDA and state auditors last month; and reforming several business operations, including student transportation, human resources, and facilities management.
“Goal 3: Parent and Community Engagement – We built and strengthened family and community partnerships throughout the year with Town Hall meetings in each region, Demand Parent Summits in each region, region-based Family Resource Centers, and personal appearances throughout the community. My schedule alone counted 96 community presentations from July 1, 2008, to June 20, 2009.
“Goal 4: Healthy Youth Development – To promote student leadership and healthy youth in our community, we established four regional health clinics; reorganized the Office of Coordinated School Health to drive health initiatives for the district; expanded the number of schools and students participating in the Urban Debate League; and won approval for improving conditions on all 12 of our high school football venues with synthetic turf, a move that will expand opportunities for band competitions and community use alike. Melrose Stadium opens the season with a new synthetic turf field next month.
“Goal 5: Safety – With the help of partners like the MPD and community agencies across the city, we established truancy centers in each region, instituted the School House Adjustment Program Enterprise (SHAPE) and Gang Reduction Assistance for Saving Society’s Youth (GRASSY) programs, and will have membership badges for students in 100 percent of our schools this fall. We are working to train more than 50,000 students in the ways of Kingian Non-Violence so that they can develop a repertoire of actions that leads to paths of peace rather retaliation. Although still early in the process of implementing our comprehensive efforts, we saw the number of serious incidents decline significantly this year and four schools previously defined as being “high-incidence” schools came off that list for 2009-10.
“Goal 6: Diversity – We have been sensitive and responsive to the needs of our increasingly diverse student body and community by: providing cultural awareness and sensitivity training for all MCS employees, training school-based staff in the methods of Culturally Responsive Classrooms, and expanding training and certification opportunities for ESL teachers. The training focus comes as the diversity of our student body is growing: in 2009-10, more than 6,700 (6 percent) of MCS students were enrolled as English Language Learners (ELL) and of that number, more than 270 were refugees who fled their native country to seek a better life in Memphis. At the present rate of growth, the number of Hispanic students in the district will be larger than the number of white students within two years.
“Nonetheless, what really grabbed the Board’s attention and made local news headlines last Saturday following the Board retreat was my presentation of data and the more revealing description of where the student performance of the district started six years ago, how far it has come, and where we need to go. For a copy of the full presentation, please visit our website at www.mcsk12.net. Here are the highlights:
• Despite early concerns from anecdotal evidence, the district’s writing scores held steady with approximately 80 percent of our students in grades 5 and 11 scoring proficient or advanced on the 2009 test. Eighth-grade students scored five points higher than last year going from 80 to 85.
• The two academic areas that count for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) are mathematics and reading/writing. MCS had a two point gain in elementary and middle school math (83 percent to 85 percent proficient) and a three-point gain in Algebra I scores (75 percent to 78 percent) from 2007-08 to 2008-09.
• During the same time frame the state’s K-8 math scores remained the same while MCS math scores increased.
• In reading/writing, elementary and middle school students had a four-point decline (86 percent to 82 percent). That was the reason many elementary schools and the district missed AYP this year. Statewide, K-8 reading scores declined, as well. Conversely, scores of MCS high school students went up in their 10th-grade English/11th-grade writing assessments (90 percent to 91 percent).
• Hispanic students have dramatically closed the achievement gap with white students since 2003-04. While white elementary and middle school students have remained relatively flat at 92 to 95 percent proficient or advanced in math, Hispanic students in the same grades have moved from 70 percent to 88 percent, closing the achievement gap with whites to just 7 percentage points. The pattern repeats in elementary/middle reading and writing, but the 22 percentage point gain (62 percent to 84 percent) in Algebra I is absolutely stunning.
• The gap-closing performance of African American students is only slightly less dramatic. In elementary and middle school math, scores have risen 17 points to 84 percent proficient or advanced from 67 percent in 2003-04. In reading/writing in the lower grades, progress has not been as remarkable, but still shows improvement (76 percent to 81 percent). Algebra I scores are up a substantial 19 points (58 percent to 77 percent) and high school reading/writing scores have grown, as well (82 percent to 90 percent). The graphs above illustrate clearly how the scores of African American and Hispanic students have steadily improved over the past six years in elementary and middle school tested subjects, and that their rate of growth outpaces top performing subgroups by a factor of six, thereby significantly closing the achievement gap.
• We cut the number of “Striving Schools,” those schools that were truly “failing” in the district almost in half, from 16 to 9.
• Using data collected as a part of our work with New Leaders for New Schools on a federally-funded Teacher Incentive Fund grant, we have evidence of the growth in student achievement for every teacher whose students take state tests (TCAP and End of Course/Gateway). I encourage you to take a look at the PowerPoint slides on our website and see the profile of two of our schools. In the school ranked number one in growth in student achievement, nine of 12 teachers had students that showed growth, while one of eleven teachers had a positive impact in the school ranked number 82 (see graphs to the left). Hence, the impetus for our Teacher Effectiveness reform work is evident.
“In short, contrary to the perception that we have increased the number of “failing” schools, we have, in fact, laid down a solid foundation for much-needed reform and our students, against enormous odds, have continued to make extraordinary gains toward closing the achievement gap.
“This final point of emphasis leads to where MCS is going in the coming year. Across K-12 education in Tennessee, a new state curriculum rolls out for 2009-10. To measure these more rigorous standards, there will be new tests in spring 2010. On top of all that, cut scores for the state tests are going to be raised to make them more comparable with state accountability models like those in Florida and Massachusetts, and like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). What this means is that we need more than ever to chart a clear and steady course across the choppy waters of our current situation toward bold, innovative systemic improvements. And we need your unflinching support.
“This year, we will focus on 1) a pre-K to third grade learning continuum that gets students off to a strong start in their school careers; 2) a focus on fourth grade, where so many of our students, especially African American boys, disengage from school; 3) increased attention to Algebra in the fifth grade as the state rolls rigorous math standards down into elementary grades; 4) middle school initiatives that engage students in positive social networks at the time they experience the developmental need for belonging; 5) high school redesign in 14 “weak promoting” high schools that will be organized around career-themed academies; and 6) the creation of a “University Corridor” in feeder patterns in the heart of the city to connect students along a Pre-K through 16 continuum of excellence in education, soon to be a model for the nation.
“Finally, foundational to this transformative body of work, I look forward to being able to announce to you that we have been selected as a substantial grant recipient of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) as they establish an extraordinary Teacher Effectiveness Initiative with fewer than five districts across the country. However, whether Gates’ support helps drive the initiative or whether we do it with our own dollars and community support is immaterial: it is quite clear that MCS must focus on improving opportunities for students by better selecting, training, retaining, and rewarding effective teachers. Our students deserve the very best teachers we can provide them and when we see the range of effectiveness measures among teachers even in our highest performing schools, we know that we have opportunities for significant improvement. If the Gates Foundation decides to select districts other than MCS, through the process of working with the BMGF we have developed a comprehensive proposal that will attract funding from other donors.
“Moreover, I trust we have a community mandate to do what is best for children. Therefore, city and county leaders and citizens must recognize the need to fund the education of all of the children of Shelby County adequately and according to their needs. The assumption that we can continue to cut our way to prosperity is flawed and misguided.
“On behalf of our students, staff, and the entire MCS family, I ask for your prayers and rededicated support as we begin a new school year on Aug. 10. Please drive carefully and watch out for the 110,000 students and their parents who will be getting back into their morning and afternoon routines. With the Board’s continued good guidance, your help, and the professional attention of more than 15,000 committed MCS faculty and staff members, I am looking forward to another breakthrough school year in 2009-10.”
Special to the Tri-State Defender
Recently, I gave two data-rich presentations about the state of the school district to the Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners at the Board’s annual retreat. The Commissioners were gracious in their comments about the quality and depth of the material presented, but encouraged me to tell the story to a broader audience through an op-ed column. Board Commissioner Rev. Kenneth T. Whalum Jr. summed up the Board’s sentiments: “Everybody needs to hear this story.”
“When I first arrived in Memphis last July, I knew the best way to understand the task I faced was to collect as much data as possible about the district. With extensive answers to 60 guiding questions (see the MCS website for the full list), our team saw that there were six serious factors or “fault lines” in the district: 1) a majority of our students were coming to kindergarten without pre-K literacy and mathematic skills; 2) a myriad of health issues were preventing tens of thousands of our students from their best work; 3) more than 30,000 students were overage for grade; 4) safety and discipline issues needed immediate attention to address a rising tide of violence; 5) one in three of our students changed schools at least once during the school year; and 6) the district was losing on average 3,000 students each year to other districts, private schools, and home schooling.
“Since last July, I have come to realize that Memphis faces unique challenges that go far beyond the walls of our schools, but certainly shape what happens behind them. Among the 50 largest cities in the nation, Memphis has the highest poverty rate, approximately 18 percent, with many of our children living in extreme poverty. No other city comes close. The percentage of college graduates in Memphis is below 24 percent, a figure in the lowest quartile. And perhaps most problematic of all, the economic segregation in Memphis is crushing: in an $87 billion local economy, minority businesses generate only $1.3 billion (1.5 percent) of the total. In a sense, these factors create what amounts to a perfect storm of challenges for the city in general and for Memphis City Schools in particular.
“With this knowledge in hand, we began an extensive program of work that covered a broad array of initiatives. Each of the initiatives was aligned to one or more of the six fault lines, the Board’s Theory of Action, and the district’s six strategic goals. In brief summary, here are a few of the items I outlined for the Board for each of the goals:
“Goal 1: Student Achievement – To accelerate the academic performance of all students, we started 29 new Pre-K classrooms; provided remediation and instructional enrichment to more than 65,000 students in web-based Stanford Math (www.epgy.stanford.edu) – the district’s math intervention; served more than 2,500 students through the Memphis Literacy Corps; grew participation in the online e-Learning program by more than 1,000 students; and fostered a 49 percent increase in dual enrollment, where students take coursework on a college campus and earn high school credit simultaneously.
“Goal 2: Accountability – We strengthened the district’s accountability system by: establishing regions for district schools and support offices; following strict accounting practices that received a clean bill of health from external fiscal auditors; “fresh starting” the Central Nutrition Center which resulted in an excellent review from USDA and state auditors last month; and reforming several business operations, including student transportation, human resources, and facilities management.
“Goal 3: Parent and Community Engagement – We built and strengthened family and community partnerships throughout the year with Town Hall meetings in each region, Demand Parent Summits in each region, region-based Family Resource Centers, and personal appearances throughout the community. My schedule alone counted 96 community presentations from July 1, 2008, to June 20, 2009.
“Goal 4: Healthy Youth Development – To promote student leadership and healthy youth in our community, we established four regional health clinics; reorganized the Office of Coordinated School Health to drive health initiatives for the district; expanded the number of schools and students participating in the Urban Debate League; and won approval for improving conditions on all 12 of our high school football venues with synthetic turf, a move that will expand opportunities for band competitions and community use alike. Melrose Stadium opens the season with a new synthetic turf field next month.
“Goal 5: Safety – With the help of partners like the MPD and community agencies across the city, we established truancy centers in each region, instituted the School House Adjustment Program Enterprise (SHAPE) and Gang Reduction Assistance for Saving Society’s Youth (GRASSY) programs, and will have membership badges for students in 100 percent of our schools this fall. We are working to train more than 50,000 students in the ways of Kingian Non-Violence so that they can develop a repertoire of actions that leads to paths of peace rather retaliation. Although still early in the process of implementing our comprehensive efforts, we saw the number of serious incidents decline significantly this year and four schools previously defined as being “high-incidence” schools came off that list for 2009-10.
“Goal 6: Diversity – We have been sensitive and responsive to the needs of our increasingly diverse student body and community by: providing cultural awareness and sensitivity training for all MCS employees, training school-based staff in the methods of Culturally Responsive Classrooms, and expanding training and certification opportunities for ESL teachers. The training focus comes as the diversity of our student body is growing: in 2009-10, more than 6,700 (6 percent) of MCS students were enrolled as English Language Learners (ELL) and of that number, more than 270 were refugees who fled their native country to seek a better life in Memphis. At the present rate of growth, the number of Hispanic students in the district will be larger than the number of white students within two years.
“Nonetheless, what really grabbed the Board’s attention and made local news headlines last Saturday following the Board retreat was my presentation of data and the more revealing description of where the student performance of the district started six years ago, how far it has come, and where we need to go. For a copy of the full presentation, please visit our website at www.mcsk12.net. Here are the highlights:
• Despite early concerns from anecdotal evidence, the district’s writing scores held steady with approximately 80 percent of our students in grades 5 and 11 scoring proficient or advanced on the 2009 test. Eighth-grade students scored five points higher than last year going from 80 to 85.
• The two academic areas that count for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) are mathematics and reading/writing. MCS had a two point gain in elementary and middle school math (83 percent to 85 percent proficient) and a three-point gain in Algebra I scores (75 percent to 78 percent) from 2007-08 to 2008-09.
• During the same time frame the state’s K-8 math scores remained the same while MCS math scores increased.
• In reading/writing, elementary and middle school students had a four-point decline (86 percent to 82 percent). That was the reason many elementary schools and the district missed AYP this year. Statewide, K-8 reading scores declined, as well. Conversely, scores of MCS high school students went up in their 10th-grade English/11th-grade writing assessments (90 percent to 91 percent).
• Hispanic students have dramatically closed the achievement gap with white students since 2003-04. While white elementary and middle school students have remained relatively flat at 92 to 95 percent proficient or advanced in math, Hispanic students in the same grades have moved from 70 percent to 88 percent, closing the achievement gap with whites to just 7 percentage points. The pattern repeats in elementary/middle reading and writing, but the 22 percentage point gain (62 percent to 84 percent) in Algebra I is absolutely stunning.
• The gap-closing performance of African American students is only slightly less dramatic. In elementary and middle school math, scores have risen 17 points to 84 percent proficient or advanced from 67 percent in 2003-04. In reading/writing in the lower grades, progress has not been as remarkable, but still shows improvement (76 percent to 81 percent). Algebra I scores are up a substantial 19 points (58 percent to 77 percent) and high school reading/writing scores have grown, as well (82 percent to 90 percent). The graphs above illustrate clearly how the scores of African American and Hispanic students have steadily improved over the past six years in elementary and middle school tested subjects, and that their rate of growth outpaces top performing subgroups by a factor of six, thereby significantly closing the achievement gap.
• We cut the number of “Striving Schools,” those schools that were truly “failing” in the district almost in half, from 16 to 9.
• Using data collected as a part of our work with New Leaders for New Schools on a federally-funded Teacher Incentive Fund grant, we have evidence of the growth in student achievement for every teacher whose students take state tests (TCAP and End of Course/Gateway). I encourage you to take a look at the PowerPoint slides on our website and see the profile of two of our schools. In the school ranked number one in growth in student achievement, nine of 12 teachers had students that showed growth, while one of eleven teachers had a positive impact in the school ranked number 82 (see graphs to the left). Hence, the impetus for our Teacher Effectiveness reform work is evident.
“In short, contrary to the perception that we have increased the number of “failing” schools, we have, in fact, laid down a solid foundation for much-needed reform and our students, against enormous odds, have continued to make extraordinary gains toward closing the achievement gap.
“This final point of emphasis leads to where MCS is going in the coming year. Across K-12 education in Tennessee, a new state curriculum rolls out for 2009-10. To measure these more rigorous standards, there will be new tests in spring 2010. On top of all that, cut scores for the state tests are going to be raised to make them more comparable with state accountability models like those in Florida and Massachusetts, and like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). What this means is that we need more than ever to chart a clear and steady course across the choppy waters of our current situation toward bold, innovative systemic improvements. And we need your unflinching support.
“This year, we will focus on 1) a pre-K to third grade learning continuum that gets students off to a strong start in their school careers; 2) a focus on fourth grade, where so many of our students, especially African American boys, disengage from school; 3) increased attention to Algebra in the fifth grade as the state rolls rigorous math standards down into elementary grades; 4) middle school initiatives that engage students in positive social networks at the time they experience the developmental need for belonging; 5) high school redesign in 14 “weak promoting” high schools that will be organized around career-themed academies; and 6) the creation of a “University Corridor” in feeder patterns in the heart of the city to connect students along a Pre-K through 16 continuum of excellence in education, soon to be a model for the nation.
“Finally, foundational to this transformative body of work, I look forward to being able to announce to you that we have been selected as a substantial grant recipient of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) as they establish an extraordinary Teacher Effectiveness Initiative with fewer than five districts across the country. However, whether Gates’ support helps drive the initiative or whether we do it with our own dollars and community support is immaterial: it is quite clear that MCS must focus on improving opportunities for students by better selecting, training, retaining, and rewarding effective teachers. Our students deserve the very best teachers we can provide them and when we see the range of effectiveness measures among teachers even in our highest performing schools, we know that we have opportunities for significant improvement. If the Gates Foundation decides to select districts other than MCS, through the process of working with the BMGF we have developed a comprehensive proposal that will attract funding from other donors.
“Moreover, I trust we have a community mandate to do what is best for children. Therefore, city and county leaders and citizens must recognize the need to fund the education of all of the children of Shelby County adequately and according to their needs. The assumption that we can continue to cut our way to prosperity is flawed and misguided.
“On behalf of our students, staff, and the entire MCS family, I ask for your prayers and rededicated support as we begin a new school year on Aug. 10. Please drive carefully and watch out for the 110,000 students and their parents who will be getting back into their morning and afternoon routines. With the Board’s continued good guidance, your help, and the professional attention of more than 15,000 committed MCS faculty and staff members, I am looking forward to another breakthrough school year in 2009-10.”
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