Author: Samantha West, Chalkbeat Tennessee

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How MSCS Is Trying to Get Preschoolers Back on Track After Covid

Photo by Erika Fletcher on Unsplash

When Jairia Cathey switched from teaching elementary school to pre-kindergarten more than a decade ago, it was a tough adjustment. Some students didn’t know how to hold a pencil or a fork, she recalled. Some didn’t know their parents’ names, or even their own. And some didn’t know how to color. 

“I was like ‘what did I get myself into?’” Cathey said. “I thought every child knew how to color.”

But those challenges didn’t come close to what she would experience trying to educate and engage with 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds during the depths of Covid-19 pandemic — or what it would take to try to get them caught up in the aftermath. 

When schools closed abruptly in 2020, derailing education for students across Memphis and the country, Cathey, a teacher at Evans Elementary, scrambled to provide virtual learning any way she could think of. She sent parents pictures of worksheets and activities from her classroom. She searched Pinterest for other learning materials. At a certain point, she set up times to visit each of her students at their home, with a face mask on.

“I just had to lay eyes on them, and I know they had to lay eyes on me,” Cathey said. “Even if it was just giving them a pencil or a coloring book or just a hug, I had to do it.” 

Plummeting enrollment in MSCS early childhood programs during the pandemic left just a handful of students in her class. When classrooms reopened in the spring, the families of Cathey’s four students decided to keep them learning remotely. And by the time students returned to her classroom after 18 months of distance learning, the few students who came arrived with a severely disrupted preschool experience or having attended no school at all, at risk of falling behind academically, socially, and emotionally.

Now Cathey and co-teacher Lisa Patterson are part of a mobilization across Memphis-Shelby County Schools to get early childhood learning in the district back on track. The effort is focused on the classroom, but it’s also counting on community groups, advertising, family engagement specialists, and multiple offices within district headquarters, with the goal of getting more students enrolled in early childhood programs and making sure they are kindergarten-ready.

The bigger objective: Containing the pandemic’s long-term impact on children and their education in Tennessee’s largest school district, where most students are Black and come from low-income families who were hit hardest by Covid-19. 

The task is daunting. After bottoming out at 4,430 in 2020-21, enrollment in MSCS’ pre-K programs has ticked back up to 4,776 this year. But it’s still far below pre-pandemic levels of above 6,000. 

Meanwhile, just 32 percent of students starting kindergarten last school year were considered ready overall, as measured by early reading and math assessments. That’s down from 40 percent in 2020-21, and 46 percent before the pandemic.

A 2020 study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that children who are not adequately prepared for kindergarten are more likely to struggle for the rest of their academic career — in later elementary school, high school, and beyond.  

“I’ve seen the results of when we get it wrong,” said Divalyn Gordon, a former kindergarten and first grade teacher who has also worked at alternative high schools and now heads MSCS’ early childhood office. 

“Those students later drop out of school … they’re making tally marks and counting on their fingers because they don’t know any multiplication facts. They can’t read to learn or comprehend. Those foundational skills are vital for student success as they matriculate through high school,” Gordon said. “That’s why I push so hard for pre-K. We’ve got to get this right.”

District officials have made early childhood education a centerpiece of their strategy to improve the district’s academic performance and recover from the pandemic. Test score data helps explain the emphasis.

The April data shows that even amid steep declines in kindergarten readiness across the district, students who attended MSCS pre-K scored significantly higher in reading, math, and overall readiness compared with those who did not attend. 

The same was true for students who are considered economically disadvantaged. And their higher performance followed them into third grade. Students from low-income families who attended a district pre-K program were slightly more likely to be proficient in English and language arts in third grade than those who did not participate in the program, according to the report.

The third-grade performance is critical, because a new state law that takes effect this year requires schools to hold back third-graders who aren’t considered proficient in reading. The law has added pressure on districts to intervene early.

MSCS prioritizes students who come from economically disadvantaged households for pre-K enrollment. But interest in the program dropped off dramatically after Covid hit and instruction went online. And persistent concerns about Covid led many parents to decide it was safer to keep their child at home than to send them to an optional program.

Because of that, Cathey said she is getting her students later, and they’re far behind — academically and otherwise. She has had to adjust her instruction accordingly.

Small group instruction has always been a critical piece of early childhood education, but given the delayed progress for some students, it’s more important than ever, Gordon said.

Gordon pointed to Cathey’s classroom as an example: Cathey’s 19 students were divided into four groups based on their skill levels, but named for different colors. On that December morning, Cathey and her co-teacher Patterson circulated through the room, giving individualized attention and instruction to students in each group, depending on what they were working on and what they needed. 

At one point, Cathey sat cross-legged on the floor next to one girl, and they talked about a book she was paging through. In another corner of the room, Patterson helped two students completing a spelling puzzle.

“You have to make those real-life adjustments when students don’t get it or don’t have the necessary foundation,” Gordon said. 

And if teachers don’t, she said, “those kids fall through the cracks.”

With pre-K enrollment across MSCS recovering slowly, Gordon said, the district is laser-focused on attracting more students to the program.

The district continues to work with the Salvation Army Purdue Residential Facility, a Memphis homeless shelter for women, and the Shelby County Division of Corrections to identify and enroll pre-K-age students who could particularly benefit from early academic intervention, Gordon said. 

MSCS has also beefed up its advertising efforts, from billboards to social media ads, Gordon said. “The journey begins with pre-K,” the ads on Facebook and elsewhere in the community usually say. “Get your future scholar started early on their academic journey.” 

Meanwhile, it has expanded its family engagement team to a staff of over 100 specialists who are charged with encouraging families who begin the online application process to finish it. 

Family engagement specialists also help parents find another location if the school they requested is no longer available. Sometimes that means connecting families with other early childhood education providers in the community, Gordon said. 

To ensure quality — the bigger challenge in Memphis, which does not have an acute shortage of child care services — the district requires those providers to follow the same bid process it uses for other services, and beginning this year, administrators visit the campus in person to confirm that best practices are being used in classrooms. 

It’s part of a broader district effort, outlined in February by then-Superintendent Joris Ray, to increase community-wide collaboration in early childhood education.

The district has two representatives — Gordon and Angela Whitelaw, the district’s deputy superintendent of schools and academic support — in a community consortium dedicated to improving early literacy. The consortium includes prominent early childhood organizations and child care providers from across Memphis, including the Urban Child Institute, Porter-Leath, Literacy Mid-South, First 8, Next Memphis, and the Hyde Family Foundation, among others.

Since early childhood became a top priority for the entire district, collaboration with other departments across the massive district has also improved, said Detris Crane, director of MSCS Head Start programming.

“The district has realized that these pre-K families are the same ones who come in for K-12, and that the earlier we intervene, the more we can improve outcomes for both children and their families,” Crane said. “I collaborate with everybody in the district now, in every department.

“I used to be on a little island,” Crane said. “Now we’re on the mainland.”

Beyond the academic fallout, trauma related to Covid and poverty continues to loom large among MSCS students and families, several MSCS teachers said. 

Ida Walker, a pre-K teacher at Douglass Head Start in northeast Memphis, said the social and emotional tolls of the pandemic have been the most noticeable among her students. 

Many of them “have something going on at home,” said Walker, who’s been a Head Start teacher since 2018. Some lost family members or caregivers in the pandemic. Others’ families have yet to recover from the deep economic consequences of Covid.

Pre-literacy skills remain a large focus in Walker’s classroom. As she read aloud to one small group of students, her co-teacher Tequila Lockett helped two other groups of students draw koala bears as part of the class’ two focuses that week, the letter K and “awesome animals.”

But so are students’ social and emotional needs. Walker has rearranged her classroom to create a “cozy corner” where her students can take time away from whatever they’re doing to regulate their emotions and seek support from Walker or her co-teacher throughout the day.

Walker hopes her students learn how to express and process their feelings. If their social and emotional needs are met now, the rest will come later, Walker said.

“They pick it up fast,” she said with a smile.

Cathey takes a similar approach in her classroom — what she hopes is a “safe haven” from whatever children are dealing with at home. Beyond teaching them early literacy and math skills, she strives to build relationships with students and their families and ensure their social and emotional needs are met. 

Cathey and Patterson also try to model caring for one another to their students, so that even if one of them isn’t nearby when a child is struggling, their classmates know to step in. Now, if a student falls or looks sad, Cathey said, their peers are quick to ask, “Are you OK? Can I help you?”

“It is a joy seeing students come in at the beginning of the year, complete blank slates. We introduce literacy. We promote language, math skills, teach them how to take care of themselves, and take care of others,” Cathey said. “When they leave, they’re writing sentences, they’re making words, they’re adding and subtracting, They learn how to work out their feelings, and it’s just so amazing to see them so independent.” 

“It’s just so rewarding,” Cathey added. “We’re getting them ready for the rest of their lives.” 

This story is the third and final installment of a Chalkbeat Tennessee deep dive into the role early childhood education can play in improving literacy in Memphis and across the Volunteer State. This effort is supported by the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program. Check out the first and second stories of the series.

Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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Interim MSCS Head Wants Vote on Teacher Contracts Next Week

Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ two teachers unions disagree over whether the district should sign the pending contract or start afresh. I Karen Pulfer Focht for Chalkbeat

The head of Tennessee’s largest school district wants the school board to vote next week on a labor agreement that has been stuck in negotiations for three years. Interim Superintendent Toni Williams’ proposal comes after the district rejected one teachers union’s attempt to restart the bargaining process from scratch.

Educators in Memphis-Shelby County Schools have been without a memorandum of understanding with the district since 2018, when the last agreement expired. The district’s two teachers unions last went to the bargaining table in 2019, but have not agreed on a new contract with the district to date.

That could change after the United Education Association of Shelby County, the smaller of the two unions, tried to kickstart a new round of negotiations, arguing that an entirely new contract is needed to address rising health care costs, stagnant salaries, and large class sizes.

“I’m a veteran teacher with over 25 years of exemplary experience, but right now, I am marking the days off the calendar for when I can retire because I am mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted,” said Fredericka Johnson, a UEA member, at a board meeting Tuesday.

Johnson signed a UEA petition that would force the district back to the bargaining table under a 2011 Tennessee law that requires a district to launch the bargaining process if unions can collect signatures from 15 percent of teachers.

On Tuesday, the district announced it was unable to verify the number of signatures on the petition because of discrepancies that included duplicate and ineligible signatures. With an insufficient number of signatures and the window for submitting a petition closed, MSCS says it cannot start the teachers union bargaining process.

Kenneth Walker II, the district’s general counsel and chief legal officer, said Tuesday that an MOU from the 2019 bargaining session was drawn up, but disagreements over compensation and fringe benefits prevented it from being signed. 

That contract would allow teachers to select the members who serve on district professional committees, boosting the district’s contribution to medical insurance premiums from 66 percent to 70 percent, and include a pledge to increase compensation during upcoming fiscal planning for the 2023 budget.

Separate from the bargaining process, Williams also proposed forming a teacher advisory council focused on improving teacher compensation, one of her top priorities as interim superintendent. 

In a presentation to the board, Williams said the council will serve as a “platform to elevate the voices of teachers throughout the district on compensation and other issues,” and would give teachers “direct access” to her office and other district leaders. The district has already opened up nominations for teachers to participate.

Danette Stokes, president of the United Education Association, supports the idea of creating a teacher advisory council, but said it’s no replacement for the bargaining process.

“Teacher voices are important. We should be at the table every time decisions are being made about us,” Stokes said. “But a teacher advisory council cannot engage in collaborative conferencing with the district.” 

The district’s unions disagree over whether the district should sign the pending contract or start afresh.

Several members of the Memphis-Shelby County Education Association, the district’s larger teachers union led by recently elected board member Keith Williams, urged the board to sign the existing MOU.

Charlotte Fields, an MSCS educator for over 26 years and a member of MSCEA, said the MOU “represents what is best for all educators.”

But other public commenters on behalf of UEA disagreed. Many shared concerns about teachers’ existing working conditions and pay and advocated for restarting the collaborative conferencing process, a bargaining procedure laid out in Tennessee law.

When MSCS hired Johnson 19 years ago, she was ecstatic. She’s no longer happy with her job, the veteran teacher told the board Tuesday.

Over the last nearly two decades, Johnson said the cost of district-provided health care plans have increased, while her salary has stayed virtually stagnant. Her planning time is “constantly interrupted” because she’s asked to cover other classrooms because the district does not have enough substitute teachers. Class sizes have increased, despite administrators’ promises of reprieve. And Johnson says she has occasionally had to lay a bag of ice over the thermostat in her room for the heat to turn on.

“District leaders are constantly stating that teachers are doing the ‘hard and heart work’ for our students,” Johnson said. “Now is the time for you to show you’re doing the same for us.”

Stokes said her union is not ready to give up on restarting negotiations. Stokes said Wednesday that the union submitted the required amount of signatures by law, and she’s consulting with union lawyers to determine her next steps.

Lisa Jorgensen, another UEA teacher, called on the board to act quickly to begin a new round of negotiations.

“Educators are drowning with work overload,” Jorgensen said. “Our working conditions are unsustainable and becoming more so.”

Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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Student Homelessness Surges In Memphis-Shelby County Schools

MSCS officials said the uptick in homelessness is likely the result of a lack of affordable housing, a longstanding problem in Memphis made worse by soaring inflation. (Karen Pulfer Focht for Chalkbeat)

Homelessness among Memphis-Shelby County Schools students has hit its highest level in at least four years, more than doubling from the same time last year.

New district data shows 1,504 students were identified as homeless as of Oct. 7, the end of the first quarter of the school year. That’s a nearly 180% increase from last fall, when the number of homeless students stood at 538.

And the problem is only getting worse, said Shawn Page, the district’s chief of academic operations and school support. So far this school year, Page said MSCS has identified and provided services to over 1,600 homeless students and their families — already topping the total number of homeless families the district supported all last school year.

“That is significant, and just shows the extreme need in our communities for homelessness services,” Page told the school board during Monday committee meetings.

Page estimates there are thousands more MSCS students experiencing housing insecurity whom the district has not been able to identify or support. The district largely relies on school counselors, social workers, and teachers to gather data on homeless students and support those families through individual schools, but sometimes, families can slip through the cracks.

The likely undercount is part of a nationwide pattern: A recent Center for Public Integrity analysis suggests 300,000 students entitled to essential rights reserved for homeless students were not identified by their school districts, which are required to help them. Some 2,400 districts did not report having even one homeless student, despite levels of economic hardship that make those figures improbable, according to the analysis, and many more are likely undercounting the number of homeless students they do identify. 

In nearly half of states, tallies of student homelessness “bear no relationship with poverty, a sign of how inconsistent the identification of kids with unstable housing can be,” the report said.

MSCS officials said the uptick in homelessness is likely the result of a lack of affordable housing, a longstanding problem in Memphis made worse by rising inflation. Rents in Memphis, for example, have risen by nearly 30% since before the pandemic, according to the November 2022 Apartment List National Rent Report.

Last year’s 36% jump to 538 homeless students appeared to be a near return to pre-pandemic levels, after virtual learning limited the district’s ability to get an accurate count of students without stable housing. The district’s latest report suggests that administrators are still struggling with the count.

The district is working to help students and families experiencing housing insecurity, Page said, from providing transportation, school supplies, and uniforms, to offering tutoring in homeless shelters and hotels and ensuring immigrant families without housing get translation services. MSCS also refers families to other community organizations that provide temporary housing to families at risk of homelessness.

But many challenges remain as homelessness continues to skyrocket, Page said, including tracking families who have fluid housing situations and having enough resources to provide them with clothing and household supplies. Page said many of the community agencies the district works with are also overwhelmed.

Page called on the community to address the issue collectively, drawing a link between homelessness and the district’s rising chronic absenteeism. 

District data released in May showed nearly 30% of MSCS students were considered chronically absent from school last year, meaning they missed 10% of school days or more. In September, district officials clashed with Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland over his comments linking rising truancy to juvenile crime and criticizing MSCS for terminating its relationship with the district attorney’s office to enforce truancy laws.

“Every time a family has to change residence, they miss school, and that’s no fault of the family. That’s no fault of the child,” Page said. “We cannot criminalize poverty, and we cannot criminalize our families, because there’s a difference between missing school and legitimate reasons for not sending your child to school. Housing instability is a community problem that’s causing our children not to come to school.”

During Monday’s committee meetings, several MSCS board members said the new data aligns with what they’re hearing from families. 

Board member Stephanie Love said that earlier in the day, a woman from her district called to tell her she’d become homeless after her landlord sold the house she’d been renting.

Board member Amber Huett-Garcia called the data a “gut punch,” and asked the community to cooperate with the district to battle homelessness. 

“We don’t need to be overly political here to say that housing is a human right,” Huett-Garcia said. “Anything we can do, let’s get committed. If you’re listening and you think you can help, come step up.” 

Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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MSCS Superintendent Search to Stretch Out To July 2023

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board discussed a proposed superintendent search timeline during Monday committee meetings. It comes over two months after the board cut ties with former Superintendent Joris Ray. (Ariel Cobbert for Chalkbeat)

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board wouldn’t select the next leader of Tennessee’s largest school district until July — a month before the 2023-24 school year begins — under a proposed superintendent search timeline.

The timeline, presented to the MSCS board during committee meetings Monday afternoon, calls for the board to spend several months gathering community feedback through four public input sessions, a student input session, and a survey of stakeholders including parents, educators, and business and nonprofit leaders across Shelby County.

MSCS board Chair Althea Greene also pitched the formation of a community search committee largely composed of representatives of local education advocacy groups and nonprofits.

“This group will work to help us capture the voices of the community,” Greene said Monday.

Though not yet set in stone, the proposed timeline offers a first glimpse of what the superintendent search will look like. It comes more than two months after the MSCS board approved a separation agreement with former Superintendent Joris Ray, who had been under investigation over allegations that he abused his power and violated district policies by engaging in sexual relationships with subordinates.

It also comes days after the Greater Memphis Chamber, the local economic development group, called on the MSCS board to establish a “rigorous” search process to attract “high caliber” candidates and to ensure that local candidates don’t get an unfair advantage.

“We cannot overstate how important the success and management of MSCS is to the future of our community,” six representatives of the chamber wrote in a Nov. 11 letter to the board, a copy of which was obtained by Chalkbeat. “The students of today are the employees of tomorrow.” 

Some school board members wondered whether the process should be sped up in order to attract the best candidates and allow the next superintendent more time to transition into the role.

Under the current timeline, the search firm ultimately hired by the board wouldn’t begin accepting applications until Feb. 16, 2023, and the search wouldn’t end until April 30. After that, the board would have a month to review the applications and select three finalists, who would be interviewed throughout June.

Current board policy says the interview process should include at least two public meetings “to allow members of the community and employees to meet with and submit questions to the finalists.” 

“I would like for us to be much more aggressive,” said board member Michelle McKissack, who was chair of the board when Ray resigned and is currently considering a run for Memphis mayor. “There are a pool of candidates that are out there, and they’ll be getting a lot of attention from a lot of school districts, so we want to make sure we have the opportunity to attract as many as we can.” 

Board member Kevin Woods also advocated for an accelerated search that would launch the bidding process to find a national search firm as quickly as possible. The proposed timeline says the board will start the process Dec. 1. 

Greene expressed willingness to adjust the timeline as needed, saying it will have to be flexible depending on how the search progresses.

She also emphasized her intent to involve the community throughout the process.

The last time the board was about to embark on a nationwide superintendent search, members changed course and hired Ray in April 2019. At the time, board members said they thought Ray, a longtime district employee who had been serving as interim superintendent for months, was an “exceedingly qualified candidate” and deemed a national search unnecessary given the cost and time it would take. 

Some Memphians disagreed with that decision, feeling the board should’ve widened its search before determining that Ray was the most qualified candidate. Memphis LIFT, a parent advocacy organization, led the charge against Ray’s appointment, and last week launched its own parent task force to give the board feedback on the next leader of MSCS.

Another prominent Memphis advocacy organization, MICAH, has publicly asked the board to hold at least two community input sessions. Greene said she decided the district needed to have four. The sessions are scheduled for:

• December 8th, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Snowden School, hosted by school board members for Districts 1-3.

• December 15th, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Southwind High School, hosted by board members from Districts 4-6.

• January 12th, 2023, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Parkway Village Elementary, hosted by board members from Districts 7-9.

• January 21st, from noon to 2 p.m. at the district offices.

A student input session is slated for December 6th, from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. A location was not specified.

Greene also touted the community search committee, which will include her and Woods representing the board; a veteran MSCS teacher; and local advocacy groups and nonprofits including Memphis LIFT, Bridges, Literacy Mid-South, Whitehaven Empowerment Zone, MICAH, Memphis Education Fund, and Stand for Children. 

“I thought long and hard about members to serve on our community group,” Greene said. “I tried to touch every community group, because some of you have been doing this work for years — you’ve had your boots on the ground.”

Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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Parent Task Force Wants Voice in Superintendent Search

The Memphis LIFT’s new Blue Ribbon parent task force gathers Monday at the parent advocacy organization’s North Memphis office to discuss what they’d like to see in the next superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools. Samantha West / Chalkbeat

As the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board prepares to launch its first national superintendent search in a decade, Charles Lampkin has several thoughts on the qualities he wants to see in the next leader.

Lampkin, the father of three MSCS students, thinks the next superintendent should prioritize transparency and be dedicated to rebuilding trust within the community. They should “keep a finger on the pulse” of the district, Lampkin said, and provide greater operations oversight. 

And most importantly, he says, the next person at the helm of Tennessee’s largest school district should be someone who wants to see all of the district’s more than 110,000 students grow and thrive and wants to support the teachers and school staff.

Lampkin was one of a dozen parents and grandparents who gathered Monday evening at the Memphis LIFT office for the first meeting of a Blue Ribbon task force that will draft a leadership profile describing the qualities and experiences they would like to see in the next superintendent, according to a news release.

The task force plans to share its findings to the MSCS board in hopes that the district’s next leader will “lift every student’s performance and move the district away from decades of chronically failing schools, poor facilities, and mismanagement,” the release says.

“The people in this room, we’re going to drive this bus,” Sarah Carpenter, executive director of Memphis LIFT, a parent advocacy organization based in North Memphis, told meeting attendees.

The meeting comes days after MSCS board Chair Althea Greene announced on Twitter that the board will begin the national superintendent search later this month, when members will vote on whether they should begin the process of hiring a search firm. 

Greene added that the board expects to name a new leader by the end of the 2022-23 school year.

Over two months ago, the board approved a separation agreement with former Superintendent Joris Ray, who had been under investigation for accusations that he abused his power and violated district policies by engaging in sexual relationships with subordinates. The agreement gave Ray a severance package of about $480,000 plus some benefits, and neither Ray nor the board admitted any wrongdoing.

Ray was appointed to the district’s top job in April 2019, after the board decided against a national search. Board members said they thought Ray, a career district employee who had been serving as interim superintendent for months, was an “exceedingly qualified candidate” and ruled a national search unnecessary given the time and cost it would take.

But some Memphians questioned whether Ray was the most qualified candidate for the job and felt the board should’ve widened its search. Memphis LIFT led the charge against Ray’s appointment.

That’s why the group decided to take charge and speak up on this search, Carpenter said Monday, calling the task force “huge” for the city. In addition to the parent task force, the organization also plans to assemble a student committee.

“We can’t have a superintendent that goes business as usual,” she said. “This system has been failing Black and brown children for decades and decades and I don’t want to hear any more excuses. We’ve got to do better and we can do better, starting with involving our parents.”

The task force will spend the next two months interviewing some of the nation’s top education officials, plus business and philanthropic leaders from other large cities. 

Carpenter said Monday she has already begun efforts to set up interviews with local leaders such as Elliot Perry of the Poplar Foundation and Terrence Patterson of the Memphis Education Fund, as well as nationally known figures like Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City who has championed charter schools. New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks has already agreed to meet with them, Carpenter said.

The task force wants to gain insight into what makes leaders effective and innovative and weigh it against what MSCS finalists say in their interviews later this school year, Ashlyn Sparks, co-chief of staff of Memphis LIFT, said Monday.

“We’re not looking for things that can be given from lip service,” Sparks said. “We’re not looking for them to say ‘literacy is important.’ We’re not looking for them to say ‘we need to clean house.’ Anybody can get up there and say all these things. We want to hear what actions and steps should these people be taking?”

The MSCS board is expected to continue discussions of the superintendent search during committee meetings scheduled for Nov. 15.

Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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Employee Complaints Put Two MSCS Officials On Leave In Six Weeks

Yolanda Martin. (Credit: Memphis Shelby County Schools)

For the second time in six weeks, a Memphis-Shelby County Schools official has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into an employee complaint.

The nature of the complaint against Yolanda Martin, the district’s chief of human resources, was unclear as of Tuesday morning. The district declined to comment on the investigation on Friday, and in a statement, interim Superintendent Toni Williams said the district “investigates all employee complaints as we continue our ongoing efforts to emphasize integrity in all MSCS functions.” 

Weeks earlier, the district put John Barker, deputy superintendent for strategic operations and finance, on leave following an employee complaint. The Commercial Appeal reported last month that Martin complained of ongoing race- and sex-based harrassment, intimidation, and discrimination by Barker, her direct supervisor.

“Dr. Barker makes me feel as though my voice does not matter and my thoughts are irrelevant as a black woman,” Martin wrote in an eight-page complaint obtained by Chalkbeat.

Martin, who has been on family and medical leave since Sept. 13, said Monday that the complaint and investigation “blindsided” her. When a district employee informed her she was under investigation last week, Martin said they didn’t give her any information about the complaint or an update on the status of her complaint against Barker.

Martin says the investigation of her may be retaliation. In an email dated Sept. 13 that Martin provided to Chalkbeat, she told several administrators she heard from “reliable sources” that Barker was “attempting to galvanize former employees to write statements/file false complaints” against her.

Martin said several principals and other district employees have reached out to her since word got out about her being placed on leave, saying they were “concerned and scared” that they will be retaliated against if they also file harassment complaints.

Board Chair Althea Greene said Friday that Martin’s leave is not related to her complaint against Barker. She declined to comment further. The district did not respond to questions about Martin’s allegations as of Tuesday morning. On Friday, the district confirmed Barker remains on leave. 

Barker and fellow Deputy Superintendent Angela Whitelaw recently served as co-acting superintendents while Joris Ray was on paid administrative leave over claims that he abused his power and violated district policies. Ray resigned in late August under a severance agreement with the board. 

The absence of two key district leaders comes in the midst of an already tumultuous school year for MSCS, as the district faces challenges such as an upcoming national superintendent search, academic recovery from the COVID pandemic, declining enrollment, teacher shortages, rising gun violence, and concerns about student mental health.

Asked about how the suspensions might affect the district’s response to its personnel challenges, Sarah Carpenter, executive director of the parent advocacy group Memphis LIFT, said: “I trust this interim superintendent and the school board to do what’s right.”

This story has been updated with new information. Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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State Rejects Appeals of Two Memphis Charter Schools

The Tennessee Public Charter Commission rejected appeals from the Binghampton Community School and Tennessee Volunteer Military Academy, siding with executive director Tess Stovall’s recommendation and the local school board decision earlier this year. Stovall, pictured on the left, recommended against allowing the two Memphis schools to open last week. Credit: Larry McCormack for Chalkbeat

The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission rejected the appeals of two proposed Memphis charter schools on Tuesday.

The nine-member board’s decision upholds the recommendations of Tess Stovall, the commission’s executive director, and the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board’s decision earlier this year to deny the applications for Binghampton Community School and Tennessee Volunteer Military Academy. The decision is final, and the two schools will not open in August 2023 as local charter leaders had hoped. 

This week’s votes wrapped up this year’s 13 charter appeals before Tennessee’s 2-year-old commission. Of those, three were approved for Nashville and six were denied in Memphis, Clarksville, Brentwood, Hendersonville, and Fayette County. Applicants behind the other four appeals, including three high-profile ones related to controversial Hillsdale College in Michigan, pulled out of the process when it became apparent that their appeals would be denied.

Binghampton Community School leaders said in their application that the school would serve about 360 students in grades K-5 on the eastern edge of Midtown, providing them with early access to International Baccalaureate programming. The Tennessee Volunteer Military Academy was meant to provide about 800 students in grades 6-12 in Cordova and East Memphis with military-based educational programming with a focus on internships and technical education.

In her recommendations for the two Memphis charter schools last week, Stovall outlined myriad concerns with both school’s applications. 

Stovall said in her recommendation that while Binghampton had a strong academic plan and the neighborhood would have been a great location for the school, its academic, facility, and staffing plans all appeared to depend on the unique skills of the head of school who resigned in July due to “extenuating personal circumstances,” according to the school’s application.

Stovall also said cost assumptions for the school did not appear reasonable, and leaders lacked sufficient funding to begin operations. 

Binghampton Community School had promised to hire a new head of school once it got approval from the state. But on Tuesday, leaders said they “respectfully accept” the commission’s affirmation of the MSCS board’s decision to deny the school’s application. 

They added: “We recognize that our capacity as a sponsor and school board to identify and recruit a replacement school leader cannot be retroactively considered during the appeal process.”

The commission also sided with Stovall and MSCS in the case of Tennessee Volunteer Military Academy. Stovall wrote that the academic plan was missing key details, including the school’s grade and class structure, an instructional model, and curriculum. Stovall said the school didn’t explain how it would serve students with disabilities and English language learners.

The application also lacked letters of support, which Stovall said called into question whether the school would be able to meet its projected enrollment of 800.

Stovall also took issue with the school’s “unclear relationship” with Charter One, a for-profit national education management association, and said the school didn’t provide a reasonable budget.

Commissioner Terrence Patterson, who is also the president and CEO of the Memphis Education Fund, said he agreed with Stovall and MSCS’ analysis but hopes both schools refine their ideas and submit future proposals.

“These are the types of innovative models that our children deserve,” Patterson said. “These are the types of innovative models that we were created to support.” 

Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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After Shooting Spree, School Leaders Call for Collaboration to Stem Violence

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For Shreya Ganesh, Thursday was supposed to be a day to focus on planning senior class events like the student body election. Instead, she and other students at White Station High School were dealing with the aftermath of another night of violence in Memphis — this time, a shooting spree across the city that left four people dead and three wounded.

But along with the shock, fear, and grief that reverberated through the school, Ganesh said, there was a feeling of comfort in watching students and staff come together to support one another through productive conversations.

The morning began with an announcement from her principal, who told students that resources were available for anyone who was struggling. Ganesh and her fellow seniors discussed the incident at length during their meeting, and her teachers brought up the incident during every class period.

“I feel like our school has a really large support system,” Ganesh said. “The way that it was such an open conversation and we talked about it in a group, it just makes you realize you’re not in it alone and everybody’s having the same fears that you are.” 

On Thursday, activists, school officials, and city leaders alike called for the community to similarly come together to find solutions to the violence that has flared across Memphis.

The series of shootings Wednesday paralyzed parts of the city as police searched for a suspect over several hours. Police later arrested and charged Ezekiel Kelly, 19, with killing one man, and said he is a suspect in the other deaths, according to The Commercial Appeal. He had been released from prison just six months earlier.

The shooting spree came just days after Eliza Fletcher, a pre-kindergarten teacher at St. Mary’s Episcopal School and mother of two, was kidnapped and killed during an early morning jog Friday.

In a message posted to social media Thursday morning, Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ interim superintendent, Toni Williams, sought to reassure families and employees. The district increased safety and security measures at all schools — including at Southwind High School, which was the target of a threatening social media post — and Williams promised officials would “continue to monitor and provide additional support to our schools.” 

“We understand that our students and staff may be upset and confused by what occurred — I believe the whole city is shaken — and we will encourage thoughtful discussion with a focus toward healing,” Williams wrote. “We have counselors, social workers, and mental health supports to assist our students and families.”

And in a tweet late Thursday afternoon, Williams encouraged the city to “channel our fears and frustrations following recent events into actions and solutions.”

Daniel Warner, a government teacher at East High School, began his classes Thursday by handing out small pieces of paper to all his students and posing a simple question: Given the recent events in our city, what are you bringing with you today? 

Students were free to write down some of the emotions. Warner didn’t collect the papers. He let students decide what to do with them: throw them away, keep them, or hand them to him if they needed help or support. They closed the exercise by saying some affirmations together.

“I just wanted to give them space to process whatever they were feeling,” Warner said. “Learning how to tend to their own hearts and spirits amid troubling events is something that’s going to really sustain them in their life.”

MSCS board Chair Michelle McKissack called for a comprehensive approach to crime and violence in Memphis. A day after district officials hit back at Mayor Jim Strickland for linking rising truancy and declining school enrollment to juvenile crime, McKissack suggested local elected officials should convene an emergency summit to explore solutions.

“It’s not just the one problem of getting guns off the streets or tackling truancy — it’s all of it,” McKissack said. “We’re operating too much in silos. We should not be making national news time after time.”

Board Vice Chair Althea Greene also said the district is focused on collaborating more with the county, Juvenile Court, and other organizations.

But on Thursday, Greene focused on Memphis students and families. She started her day at Promise Academy-Hollywood, where she said she witnessed a somber school drop off.

People looked tired, Greene said. Many parents waited in the car with their students until the school doors opened, rather than sending them off to line up in front of the school. One parent in a car was crying because she had lost two family members the night before.

Wednesday’s shooting spree was all students were talking about. That was also the case at the three other schools Greene visited Thursday morning during breakfast and in between lessons.

“They weren’t talking about reading and math today — they were talking about what happened in our city,” Greene said. “That’s just not the culture and climate we want for our students. So we’re going to have to work together as elected officials to change that and to make sure we put the correct policies and laws in place.” 

Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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Joris Ray Agrees to Resign as Memphis-Shelby County Schools Chief Under Deal with Board

Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray (Credit: Shelby County Schools/Facebook).

Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray, who was under investigation over claims that he abused his power and violated district policies, resigned Tuesday under an agreement with the school board that formally ends the inquiry.

At a special meeting Tuesday, the nine-member board approved an agreement that will give Ray a severance package equivalent to 18 months’ salary — about $480,000 — plus some other benefits. All members voted in favor, except for Stephanie Love, who did not vote.

The school board launched the external investigation in mid-July following allegations contained in divorce filings that Ray had adulterous affairs with women who were later identified as district employees. The board appointed former U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III to lead the investigation and placed Ray on administrative leave.

Since then, Chalkbeat learned that at least two of the women Ray’s wife alleges that he had affairs with were people he supervised before becoming superintendent.

Herman Morris, the MSCS board’s attorney, said Tuesday that earlier this month, Ray became concerned that the investigation had “become distracting to and constraining for the district” and proposed a mutual resignation agreement.

Deputy superintendents Angela Whitelaw and John Barker will continue leading the district until an interim chief is named, MSCS board Chair Michelle McKissack said during a press conference after the meeting. The board will provide the public with more information about the district’s upcoming superintendent search in the coming weeks, McKissack said.

“We commend Dr. Ray’s longstanding commitment to Memphis-Shelby County Schools, and for his leadership during the pandemic,” she said. “But we are now looking forward to welcoming a new leader, who can build on the established foundation and take our district to the next level.”

In a message to district families and employees after Tuesday’s meeting, Barker and Whitelaw said they will continue working toward “expanded academic gains and opportunities for all students” while the board determines next steps of the superintendent search.

“Rest assured, students, teachers, and staff will continue to have strong advocates in us during the days ahead,” Barker and Whitelaw wrote in the message.

Sarah Carpenter, who as executive director of Memphis Lift has led community calls for Ray to resign for months, vowed Tuesday to “keep the pressure on” district officials to improve academic performance and transparency, and called for a national search for Ray’s successor.

“We need a revolutionary person for our children,” Carpenter said. “We cannot have business as usual anymore.”

Since the Daily Memphian first reported on the divorce filings and the allegations against him, Ray has denied violating any MSCS policies.

Under the terms of the agreement, neither Ray nor the district is admitting any wrongdoing. The investigation will remain incomplete after the board declared it “moot” with Ray no longer employed at the district. The board will pay Stanton $19,000 for his work over the last month.

McKissack said the board still plans to review all of its policies — including those involving the superintendent — in the coming weeks, after current board members and candidates expressed broad support for strengthening them. New board members elected in the Aug. 4 contest will be sworn in Aug. 31.

Current district policy, last updated in August 2021, “strongly discourages romantic or sexual relationships between a manager or other supervisory employee and their staff,” citing the risk of actual or perceived conflicts of interest, favoritism, and bias, according to the district’s employee handbook. The policy also states that “given the uneven balance of power within such relationships, consent by the staff member is suspect and may be viewed by others, or at a later date by the staff member, as having been given as the result of coercion or intimidation.”

In addition, the policy requires parties to reveal any such relationships to managers. Chalkbeat filed an open records request asking the district whether Ray disclosed any such relationships. The district later responded that no such documents exist.

The MSCS board also has a policy, adopted in 2017, describing the ethical code the superintendent must follow. The code requires the superintendent “to maintain standards of exemplary professional conduct” and says the superintendent must adhere to the following statement: “I will endeavor to fulfill my professional responsibilities with honesty and integrity.” 

Ray’s time leading Tennessee’s largest school district has been bumpy.

Ray was named superintendent in April 2019, after the MSCS board decided against searching nationally for the district’s next leader. Board members said at the time that they thought Ray, a longtime district employee who had been serving as interim superintendent for months, was an “exceedingly qualified candidate,” and said a national search was unnecessary and would cost the district valuable time and resources.

To board members and many others in the community, Ray was an example of an MSCS success story who overcame personal challenges and rose through the district’s ranks in a career spanning two decades. During his tenure as superintendent, Ray often discussed how his Memphis upbringing has shaped his perspective as an educator.

The youngest of seven children, Ray, 48, was born to parents who never completed their formal education. He went on to graduate from Whitehaven High School, and receive a doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from the University of Memphis.

“If you look at what research says about me … there’s a 50% chance I’m supposed to be a high school dropout,” Ray told Chalkbeat in an exclusive interview in April. “But through a high quality education and caring teachers, look at where I am today.” 

Ray’s mother had a brain aneurysm when Ray was just 12 years old. He credited his pre-algebra teacher who checked on him every day — academically, socially, and mentally — for helping him get through that traumatic event and shaping his own approach to teaching.

“She wanted something more for me, and she understood what I was going through at home,” Ray said in April. “That’s what I bring to the table, because I want something more for our students, each and every day.” 

But some Memphians questioned whether Ray was the most qualified candidate for the job and felt the board should’ve widened its search. Others expressed concern about complaints of sexual harassment lodged against Ray months earlier, though a district investigation concluded there was no wrongdoing.

A year into his tenure as superintendent, COVID struck. Under Ray’s leadership, MSCS was among the first districts in Tennessee to shutter classrooms — and among the last to fully reopen for in-person learning.

For much of the 2020-21 school year, Gov. Bill Lee and other GOP leaders pressed MSCS to offer in-person learning. But Ray resisted, pledging to continue giving teachers the option to work from home to keep them and the district’s students safe. 

In February 2021, Ray relented and called on educators and students to return to classrooms, citing declining COVID cases in the county and a legislative proposal to cut funding for school systems that do not offer at least 70 days of in-person learning that school year. Most students opted not to return, except for state standardized testing later in the spring.

The majority of MSCS students didn’t return to in-person learning until the 2021-22 school year. The expected comeback year turned out to be what Ray called the “hardest year ever” as the district faced more COVID surges, ever-changing mask guidance, staffing struggles, growing community frustration about the district’s poor academic performance, a school shooting, and gun violence throughout the community, among other challenges.

Still, Ray pushed forward with several of his flagship initiatives, such as boosting early literacy, recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers, improving facilities, expanding before- and after-school tutoring, and increasing access to advanced academics.

And through it all, Ray enjoyed consistent support from the school board, receiving high marks on all his evaluations and an early contract extension through 2025 that included a 3% pay raise. Board members again praised Ray this summer for the district’s improvements on state standardized tests to near pre-pandemic levels.

The support appeared to soften, however, amid the new investigation into Ray’s conduct, with some school board members and candidates calling for stricter accountability over the superintendent during Chalkbeat’s candidate forum. 

Keith Williams, a former teacher and executive director of the city’s largest teachers organization who is joining the school board next week, said 28 teachers in the district were fired last year for behavior similar to what’s alleged against Ray, based on the law. 

“We have to be fair, we have to be open, and we have to be consistent with policy,” said Williams, who defeated District 6 appointee Charles Everett in the election earlier this month.

Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.

Alejandra Machín contributed information to this report.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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Memphis District Receives Highest State Rating for Academic Growth

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For the first time in seven years, Memphis-Shelby County Schools received the state’s highest rating for academic growth, another sign of an upswing after the deep learning losses caused by the pandemic.

Tennessee’s largest school district received Level 5 ratings for literacy, numeracy, and composite student growth as measured by end-of-year testing in the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, known as TVAAS. It’s a significant jump from previous years: The state Department of Education has deemed MSCS a Level 1 or 2 school district for the last four school years.

In a news release Monday, MSCS also announced that 75 district-managed schools and 28 charter schools earned individual Level 5 composite ratings. MSCS has nearly 160 district-managed schools and about 55 charter schools.

“We are proud of this honor, because it affirms that our strategies and teachers are helping students make academic gains,” Angela Whitelaw, deputy superintendent of schools and academic support, said in a statement.

The district’s TVAAS scores come a week after more than 100,000 students returned to classrooms across Memphis for the new school year, which students, educators, and administrators hope will bring more recovery and a return to normal, despite some abnormal circumstances. 

The MSCS school year began without its leader while Superintendent Joris Ray remains on paid administrative leave pending an external investigation into whether he abused his power and violated district policies by engaging in relationships with subordinates. Deputy Superintendents Whitelaw and John Barker are leading the district in Ray’s place.

Meanwhile, district-level scores from the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, known as TCAP, show that the district has made progress in terms of student proficiency rates in key academic areas, though it still has a long way to go. The latest scores show nearly 17 percent of Memphis students in grades 3-12 performed at or above grade-level expectations in math and English on state standardized tests in 2022, an increase of about 6 percentage points from the previous year and a near return to pre-pandemic levels.

But the TCAP results also underscored that some of the most vulnerable student groups — such as children with disabilities, those from low-income families, and students of color — continue to lag behind their peers academically.

While TCAP gauges proficiency, TVAAS measures students’ academic progress over time, regardless of proficiency, and a Level 5 rating indicates that students’ growth over the previous year exceeded expectations.

Fewer than 30 percent of districts across Tennessee — including the state’s two largest school systems in Memphis and Nashville — received a Level 5 rating, according to statewide data also released Monday. 

To MSCS officials, the district’s Level 5 TVAAS rating signifies that while “not all students start at the same place,” they are “rebounding from the negative impacts of the pandemic, our teachers are effectively helping students to reach academic goals, and our curriculum plan is getting results,” the news release says.

Administrators also touted gains in literacy — a top focus at MSCS for the last several years — with 87 percent of district schools earning a Level 3 TVAAS rating or higher in that area, and 58 percent of schools receiving a Level 5.

With the new school year already underway, the district is focused on continuing the strategies adopted last year to boost COVID recovery, such as increased tutoring, smaller early elementary class sizes, improving teacher retention, and expanded summer programming.

“Memphis-Shelby County Schools is trending up,” said Barker, deputy superintendent of strategic operations and finance. “We’re working to continue those trends this year.”

Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.