There are 39 article(s) tagged Charter schools:
Sectarian prayers at a government meeting notwithstanding, the General Assembly’s daunting task this session to allocate an additional $1 billion to education is more than a math problem.
“These thefts were carried out over a period of four-and-a-half years without scrutiny by the MAHS Board of Directors,” Comptroller Jason Mumpower said in a press release.
Nineteen KIPP Memphis Academy Middle staff members sent a letter to the board of directors asking them to remove Kendra Ferguson, who has led the charter network of five schools since 2016 and reports to the board.
The move back to school buildings would make KIPP one of the first public schools in the city to reopen after starting all remote. The return to in-person learning is outlined in a letter from the charter network’s CEO Kendra Ferguson.
KIPP gave up on their students, families, faculty and staff after only a few years of operation. This was a financial decision that is inequitable to the historic Alcy Ball community in South Memphis.
The coronavirus has ground most of the economy to a halt and created financial uncertainty for both traditional and charter schools. Last week in Memphis, charter network KIPP announced plans to close two of its schools, partly because of its struggle to secure long-term funding during the pandemic.
Steve Canavero is working with the newly created Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. He led a similar charter initiative in Nevada. Tennessee's 118 charter schools are mostly in Shelby County.
Memphis School of Excellence buys Harding Academy of Memphis' 20-acre campus in Cordova for $6 million.
If all the schools are approved, they eventually would enroll about 2,100 students, which would make a small dent in the district’s need for 44,000 more “high-quality” seats in various neighborhoods, according to the Shelby County Schools’ analysis.
District staff recommended against re-upping operating agreements for Veritas College Preparatory, Memphis College Preparatory Elementary and Memphis Business Academy Middle.
The new hires are expected to further expand the influence of organizations advocating for education policies such as vouchers and charter schools.
The new charter school policy the school board approved over the summer was the first update in eight years and significantly increased accountability.
Laura Faith Kebede of Chalkbeat Tennessee, Toby Sells of The Memphis Flyer and Karanja Ajanaku of The New Tri-State Defender discuss charter schools, Greensward parking, Confederate monuments and more with host Eric Barnes.
Libertas School of Memphis received a Level 5 TVAAS designation from the state this year on its report card. The charter school is in its fifth year in Frayser.
Aspire Public Schools superintendent Nick Manning talked on The Daily Memphian Podcast about the move of the charter organization in Memphis for the last seven years to a local board in the new school year.
The Shelby County Schools board included the request to state lawmakers to hold off on charter approvals until the state evaluates how they are doing.
Patricia Ange is seeking $350,000 in damages against Memphis Academy of Health Sciences High School, which enrolled about 400 students last year.
The policy gives the board the ability to deny a charter school application to open in a neighborhood with relatively few students; establishes a timeline for revoking a school’s charter if it shows poor academic results; and provides schools a chance to compete for free rent in district buildings.
The openings and closings will bring the total number of Memphis charter schools to 82 — with Shelby County Schools overseeing 57 and the state-run Achievement School District overseeing 25 more.
The federal guidance removes the final hurdle for Compass Community Schools to open its six campuses across Memphis on July 31 in former Catholic school buildings.
“The state has pretty clear criteria for what an academic plan should look like, what an operational plan should look like and what a financial plan should look like. None of those schools really met that criteria,” said Bradley Leon, Shelby County Schools chief of strategy and performance management.
Now that Gateway is officially closed, parents and students are left to find a new high school. Many are headed to their zoned neighborhood schools; others are still searching.
This year, the Tennessee General Assembly approved Gov. Bill Lee’s proposal to establish an independent statewide authorizer of public charter schools. The commission will ensure decisions to open or close public charter schools are made based on the specific needs of local students.
The board voted to keep open three out of six Memphis charter schools that appeared on the state’s list of lowest-performing schools, and voted to close the three other charter schools on the list, all run by former superintendent and current Memphis mayoral candidate Willie Herenton.
The district’s new analysis on where charter schools are most needed was based on the number of students in various Memphis neighborhoods and the school seats available for them.
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