There are 52 article(s) tagged Achievement School District:
Leaders in the Achievement School District, charter schools that took over historically low-performing schools, fear further state cuts would seriously affect special education programs for students with some of the highest needs.
A round table of journalists discusses some of the biggest stories in Memphis, including the impact of the sales tax referendum, the achievement school district, a natural hair discrimination ban and more.
The Memphis schools have shown enough improvement to be eligible to leave the Tennessee Achievement School district next school year. Since that's never happened before, no one knows how that should work.
Cornerstone Prep Denver’s student achievement is the highest of all 30 schools in the Achievement School District, the district of charter schools tasked with turning around Tennessee’s lowest-performing schools.
The state-run district took over low-performing schools in Memphis and Nashville with a goal of vaulting them out of the state’s bottom 5% and into the top 25% academically. The schools – 28 in Memphis and two in Nashville – have performed no better or worse than comparable struggling schools outside of the district.
Only 3.4% of high schoolers in the Achievement School District met the state’s proficiency standards on this year’s math and English exams, while 12.6% of elementary students reached that benchmark.
Special Report: Memphis' Reading Test PART 1: Meeting goals for third-grade reading proficiency in Tennessee is a daunting task unless dramatic improvements occur in Shelby County, where the hurdles are high and the challenges complex. And in Memphis, a city where nearly four in five children in public schools aren't reading on grade level, the undertaking is monumental.
Freedom Preparatory Academy will continue operating its Westwood neighborhood elementary school as part of the state turnaround district instead of moving the school to Shelby County Schools oversight.
A dozen people from other states answered Tennessee school chief Penny Schwinn’s request to meet in Nashville and talk about the Achievement School District. Seven years after its creation, the Tennessee district’s third leader recently left; a study found the program has not improved student achievement; and Schwinn said no new schools will join this year.
Political support for the Tennessee achievement district could be waning. After the district’s high profile leader Sharon Griffin left this month, some state lawmakers are calling for hearings on its future.
Sharon Griffin was the fourth ASD leader in seven years. Katie Poulos, the state’s new chief of schools overseeing turnaround efforts, said there will be a national search for a permanent replacement.
Sharon Griffin’s resignation as chief of the Achievement School District reflects growing tension between the state and Griffin on how to improve the turnaround district.
Yolanda Dandridge is leaving for charter operator Memphis Scholars. She will take charge of the Memphis-based charter organization’s Caldwell Guthrie Elementary School. She’s been at Georgian Hills as a teacher, assistant principal and principal since 2013.
ASD chief Sharon Griffin wants to play a bigger role in the day-to-day operations of charter schools than past leaders have. She wants charter and school leaders to improve test scores, to bolster teacher recruitment and training. But school leaders say they were promised autonomy to run their charter schools as they see fit.
The Achievement School District has dealt with a spin-off like this before with Memphis Scholars, which runs three schools in the state district. But this is the first time Shelby County Schools has dealt with a question like this.
PART 2: High-stakes testing has shifted the focus of kindergarten from what's developmentally appropriate to get kids ready for school, to what's academically required to prepare students for their first standardized achievement tests in third grade.
A senior official in Tennessee’s Achievement School District was ousted Thursday morning – the first major shakeup the district has seen under leader Sharon Griffin.
Tennessee education leaders can now track glitches with the revamped TNReady testing system in real time. But the state education commissioner says she still must decide whether to throw the switch or wait another year to resume online achievement tests.
In a presentation to Memphis parents this week, Griffin said: “The life of the ASD is at stake. We either fix it and show improvement or it’s not going to exist….”
Kirby Middle's principal, Marian Williams, credits the reflection room and an incentives program for students’ good behavior as aids to a more empathetic approach to discipline this year.
Martin Luther King College Prep has built its mission around several traits of the Civil Rights icon.
Aspire is spinning off its four Memphis schools into a new, independent charter school organization. The 1,600 students would officially transition at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year if the plan comes to fruition.
Research has shown that when students have more “familiar faces” around them in class, they’re less likely to be chronically absent, so nonprofits like Communities in Schools are sending staff members into local schools to combat absenteeism.