John Branston ponders the mysteries of Tennessee’s Achievement School District.
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Month: June 2012
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Can Schools Fail their Way to Success?
Tennessee’s Achievement School District is in the news today. In Nashville, there was a press conference Monday to announce that seven charter school organizations plan to open nine new schools in the ASD in Memphis and Nashville in 2013, the year of the big change.
Is the Achievement School District like the NBA Lottery? Can you fail your way to success?
In the NBA, if a team is mediocre it winds up with a low-to-middling draft pick, but if it is really bad, it is rewarded by making the lottery and has a chance (but not a certainty) for the number-one pick that can turn the team around in a year or two.
In schools, it seems that if a public school is mediocre it stays that way and remains part of the parent system (let’s say Memphis City Schools). But if it is deemed a failure year after year by state standards, then it becomes part of the charterized Achievement School District and gets an infusion of special attention and new leadership.
And some of the individual teachers and principals at the failing school can also get new life in what purports to be a “worst to first (top 25 percent)” program.
I’ve read a bunch of articles and comments on this, but would welcome your thoughts. As I wrote on this blog last week, I have doubts about “miracle schools” being able to replicate their success on a system-wide scale. And the goal of “100 percent go to college” is a notable achievement, but it might be better if some of those graduates went to trade school, work, or the military.
If you have a connection to either a “failing” school or the ASD and don’t mind identifying yourself, that could be helpful.
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Justin Leonard: Talkin’ Memphis
Frank Murtaugh interviews golfer Justin Leonard, a two-time winner in Memphis, prior to this year’s FedEx St. Jude Classic.
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A Q&A with Justin Leonard
Justin Leonard is one of only five golfers to have won multiple championships in Memphis (he was victorious in 2005 and 2008). The Texas native — who turns 40 five days after the final round of this week’s FedEx St. Jude Classic — won the 1997 British Open and drained a 45-foot putt to clinch the 1999 Ryder Cup for the U.S. team.
Memphis is one of two places you’ve won twice. Safe to assume you’ve come to like the Southwind course?
When they transitioned the course to Bermuda grass a few years ago, it really changed the event. It went from being a golf course where you felt like you had to make seven or eight birdies per round to a much more difficult course, because of the firmness and speed of the greens. And it’s a fun layout to play, with some risk-reward opportunities. I don’t think it favors a particular kind of player.
Do you have a favorite hole?
I try not to pick favorites. A lot of how the course plays depends on the wind. The fifth hole can be very difficult when it’s into the wind. Eight and nine are challenging. Twelve is a very tight hole. And, of course, you have a lot of drama between 17 and 18, with water up the side of the last hole.
Any specific memories of your wins here that stand out today?
They were two very different wins. In 2005, I had a huge lead and played okay on Sunday, but David Toms shot a great round and made it interesting. My second win there, I hung in there all week, then played a good round on Sunday and was surprised myself to get into a playoff with Robert Allenby and Trevor Immelman. I was able to make a nice putt on the second playoff hole.
As the story is told, your wife had to convince you to play here before your first win in 2005. Can you share the details?
She’s done that a couple of times, looking at my record. She knew I had done well there [three top-ten finishes] and said, “Let’s go back.” A lot of times, no matter how much you love the golf course, it’s hard to make it work. We obviously had a great week [in 2005].
The tournament has been a longtime supporter of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. How has St. Jude impacted you since you first played here in 1994?
I have four wonderful kids. And I realize how special St. Jude is, for the treatment they offer and the research they do. So many kids are treated there that otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford health care. My kids are healthy, so I haven’t been through the experience that a lot of the kids and parents have who have visited St. Jude. But I certainly realize the impact they have. Having been able to spend a little time meeting some of the families, and when you tie that in to an event, and realize the impact you’re making, it makes it very difficult not to go back. I missed not being there last year.
The tournament seems to have a unique harmony between its title sponsor and St. Jude. Do you see these kind of connections elsewhere on the PGA Tour?
When I think of Memphis, I think of St. Jude and FedEx. Those two organizations are synonymous with Memphis, Tennessee. FedEx took a huge step in sponsoring the FedEx Cup. What a huge commitment, financially and from a marketing standpoint. I’m so happy to see them come back and realize how important that tournament is to the area, not that they ever lost sight of that. For them to step up says some incredible things about the company and their support of the PGA Tour. They’re doing everything they can to support the hospital and the event.
The FESJC seems to have a nice spot on the Tour calendar, coming a week before the U.S. Open. How important is it for you to be playing well entering the U.S. Open?
I’ve got to qualify for the U.S. Open, but if I’m able to qualify, the best preparation I can have is to play well the week before. Being in Memphis, playing at Southwind — a course I like — is very important. But Memphis is bigger than a warm-up event. The best thing I can do to prepare is to play well in Memphis. That’s my main goal.
Eleven of the last 12 majors have been won by players who had never taken one before. Is this healthy for the sport, the parity?
It’s healthy. Look at the season that Luke Donald is putting together, and his consistency the last couple of years. Look at Rory McIlroy and all he’s done. Lee Westwood seems to play great every week. Phil [Mickelson] wins a tournament and seems to get into contention every week. Then you have guys like Ricky Fowler and Keegan Bradley stepping up and winning golf tournaments.
For a long time, it seemed like everybody was focused on just five or six players, and I think that did a lot of players injustice. To have so many great players from all over the world playing well speaks volumes about the PGA Tour and the depth. That can be nothing but good for the game. It’s good to have a dominant figure occasionally, but I think dominance, at times, gets old. Tiger’s dominance was extraordinary, and he may return to that kind of dominance again. But as a player, it’s more interesting when you have a whole handful of guys who are the favorites, as opposed to one player against the field.
Hannah Sayle profiles Give 365, a new Memphis philanthropic organization that’s tapping into younger donors.
Elisha Gold won the $1,000 Grand Prize for his sculpture in an overall competition among the 20 local artists chosen to exhibit at venues scattered among businesses in the heart of Memphis for the Unveil Downtown art walk and auction. His pieces are on display at Lansky 126.
A sculptor and painter originally from Mississippi, Gold received his bachelor of fine arts degree from William Carey College in Gulfport before earning a Masters of Fine Arts degree from the University of Memphis in 2009.
Rebekah Laurenzi, exhibiting at Art Under a Hot Tin Roof, took home the second place prize of $500. While she considers herself mainly a sculpture and installation artist, Laurenzi’s current series are a mix of drawings and relief sculptures of crystalline landforms that aim to blur lines between the natural and man-made world. She lives and works in Memphis as an elementary school art teacher.
Jimpsie Ayres was awarded third place with $250. Ayres is a Memphis native who studied fine arts at the universities of Tennessee and Florida. Her landscape paintings are inspired by her Southern childhood, and can be found at Thai Bistro.
Congratulations to these and all of the artists chosen to exhibit for Unveil Downtown! The auction to benefit the Downtown Neighborhood Association will continue until June 20th, so check out the great work and bid on a piece of art in the lobby of the building at 80 Monroe Avenue or online.
- JB
- Cohen at headquarters opening
Formally opening his newest campaign headquarters on Union Avenue Saturday, 9th District congressman Steve Cohen cast himself not only as a candidate for reelection but, in both subtle and overt ways, as an organizing figure in local Democratic politics.
“We want to have a ballot this year that takes the best people into office,” said Cohen in words that echoed the longtime practice of one of his predecessors, former congressman Harold Ford Sr., who published sample ballots at election time indicating his preferences for various positions.
In the manner of the senior congressman Ford, Cohen indicated he would not shy away from taking sides in a Democratic primary, and he did just that with respect to the race between his longtime friend and ally, state Senator Beverly Marrero, and another incumbent Democratic senator, Jim Kyle, currently the leader of the state Senate’s Democrats.
Cohen described Marrero as “my good friend, my successor, the lady who stands up when people need to stand up, the person with courage, the person with the right voice for the City of Memphis and for Senate District 30,” while he referred to Kyle, a longtime party rival, as someone “who in redistricting took Senate District 30 and made it into something different.”
Staying with that theme, Cohen in effect continued to lay claim to those East Memphis portions of his district which were reassigned by the legislature’s Republican majority to the 8th District, where GOP congressman Stephen Fincher now holds sway.
“They took a lot of my constituents whom I’ve served for many years out of my district. I’m going to continue to represent those people because they need help, and I’m going to continue to be their voice, because they need a voice in Congress, and they’re not going to have one in Congress from the state of Tennessee other than me.”
Simultaneously, he welcomed “the people of Cordova and Frayser and Millington who’ve been added to the district.”
Of his own reelection campaign, in which he has Tomeka Hart as a Democratic primary opponent, Cohen focused on the likely Republican nominee in the 9th District race, former Shelby County Commissioner George Flinn, the wealthy radiologist and broadcast magnate who, as Cohen noted, has waged unsuccessful races in the past for county mayor, City Council, and Congress.
“We’ve got a primary, but the enemy is the Republicans, and we’ve got a self-funder that‘ll be running against me in the fall….He’s going to spend a lot of money, so we’re going to spend some money, too, and we’ll do everything we can to see that his is his worst defeat.”
Noting that suburban referenda for municipal school districts will occur on August 2 and draw out Republicans, Cohen also urged his listeners to come to the support of countywide Democratic candidates Ed Stanton and Cheyenne Johnson, who are running to continue as General Sessions Clerk and Assessor, respectively.
And Cohen looked beyond the races on the local ballot.
Referring to a recent Department of Justice study showing a variety of problems at Juvenile Court, Cohen conferred a plug on Veronica Coleman, a onetime candidate for Juvenile Court Clerk, as someone who could help remedy the situation there.
He said, too, that, despite having the burden of reelection himself, he was “still going to do national campaign work for president Obama,” and he viewed with concern the prospect that a President Mitt Romney could make appointments to the Supreme Court.
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Fueled by Art
A Midtown gas station gets an artistic overhaul from MCA students.
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The Sound of My Voice
Chris Herrington reviews the intriguingly mysterious indie flick, The Sound of My Voice.
Pam and I were walking on South Main today, post-lunch, and noticed the door to soon-to-be Aldo’s Pizza Pies wide open.
Inside, Aldo Sr. — his son Aldo Dean owns Aldo’s Pizza Pies as well as Bardog and Slider Inn — was busy staining the bars made from reclaimed wood.
While there’s still work to do — Aldo Sr. estimates an opening date as the end of the month — a quick look around suggests that this is going to be one good-looking spot.
