TN EDUCATION: Memphis City Schools dominate state probation list

Memphis City Schools dominate state probation list By Aimee Edmondson edmondson@gomemphis.com August 23, 2002

NASHVILLE - Forty-six Memphis City Schools were placed on probation by the State Board of Education today, bringing them one step closer to a possible state takeover in two years if they don't show adequate improvement.

Friday marked the first time the state put schools on probation. Last year, it named 64 Memphis schools to a list of low performers that risked being placed on probation if they didn't improve.

Memphis schools make up the bulk of the state probation list, with far more than any of Tennessee's other 137 school districts. The 118,000-student Memphis system is the largest in the state.

Statewide, 63 schools were placed on probation. The district with the second highest number of probation schools was Hamilton County, which had eight.

In West Tennessee, Fayette County and Hardeman County each have one school on the probation list.

None of the schools identified as low performers last year was removed from the list because they must show adequate progress two years in a row. Instead, they are now labeled on-notice but improving.

Conversely, no new schools were added to the list because of a new federal law that requires schools to be failing two years in a row to be identified to a failing list.

Tennessee Education Commissioner Faye Taylor invited Memphis Supt. Johnnie B. Watson to the state board meeting in Nashville for the announcement.

"Many of these (probation) schools were starting much, much further behind" in efforts to improve, Taylor said. All but six schools statewide failed to make any improvements at all, she said.

"These folks have been out there working very, very hard. But sometimes shining a light on the problem makes the team a little bit bigger."

Schools on the probation list and the on-notice list rank in the bottom quarter on state achievement tests. State officials also look at the new high school exit test scores and dropout rates in drawing up the lists.

Of Memphis's original group of state-identified schools, almost a third avoided probation by showing incremental improvements. State officials said they had hoped 10 would do so statewide.

Watson said state and local grants used to improve teaching and learning have helped the low performers.

"I'm especially pleased the Memphis community and the State Board of Education have heard our call for help," Watson said after the meeting.

"My projection is that few if any schools in Memphis will be taken over by the state in 2004."

Creating this year's list of low-performing and probation schools has been a confusing and complicated process, even for high ranking education department officials. They had to merge the state's accountability law with a similar federal law passed earlier this year.

For years, a federal process of identifying low-performing schools has flown under the radar of the public, and even many educators.

President Bush's No Child Left Behind Law brought to the forefront a "school improvement" list, that included 132 Tennessee schools, 73 of which were in Memphis. There was a good deal of overlap between the state-identified list and the federal list.

When we bought our house in Tipton County, we were told by our closing attorney that over 50% of his closings involved folks moving out of Memphis. It is a shame that a few families have commerce locked up in Munford and Brighton. If a few at least regional chains in grocery, hardware and food services could get established, the flight north would really take off.

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