New audit says MSCS board lacks vision
Experts at The Council of the Great City Schools evaluated curriculum and instruction practices at Memphis’ school district. The review found that a “recent legacy of leadership and organizational change” had contributed to “consistently low and stable” academic progress. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)
Memphis-Shelby County Schools could improve academic outcomes for students with a clear strategic plan, organizational stability, and a comprehensive approach to literacy instruction, according to an audit completed last fall and published in January.
Experts at the Council of the Great City Schools evaluated curriculum and instruction practices at Memphis’ school district at the request of former Superintendent Marie Feagins. Their report found that a “recent legacy of leadership and organizational change” had contributed to “consistently low and stable” academic progress.
Board members failed to set a vision for a collaborative strategic plan with district administration, auditors wrote, and didn’t set Feagins up for success by using one-time federal funds on additional personnel. But Feagins’ decision to simultaneously restructure the district’s central office when those funds expired disrupted centralized resources needed by schools and hampered cohesive efforts toward academic improvements.
“Do not let urgency be the enemy of purposeful, strategic, high-quality planning to implement the recommendations that follow,” CGCS authors wrote in the report.
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Laura Testino
Laura Testino is an enterprise reporter on The Daily Memphian’s metro team who writes most often about how education policies shape the lives of children and families. She regularly contributes to coverage of breaking news events and actions of the Tennessee General Assembly. Testino’s journalism career in Memphis began six years ago at The Commercial Appeal, where she began chronicling learning disruptions associated with the pandemic, and continued with Chalkbeat, where she dug into education administration in Memphis. Her reporting has appeared in The New York Times, The Times-Picayune, The Tuscaloosa News and USA Today.
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