Coming home tonight and checking my email, I was very surprised to see that Governing.com, one of my favorite public policy websites, is going to be running a year long series on education reform in Memphis! The first part in this series focuses on Frayser and the ASD, with profiles on Chris Barbic and Bobby White (the principal at the new ASD-run Frayser High).
Why the ASD? As the author, John Buntin notes the ASD is at the forefront of every education reform conversation in Memphis (along with the iZone);
Indeed, Tennessee’s Achievement School District is at the heart of just about every conversation on improving education in Memphis right now. That’s because in recent years, public schools in Memphis have answered to one of two masters. One is the Shelby County school board; the other is the state ASD, which has the statutory right to take over schools whose test scores place them in the bottom 5 percent of performers statewide. It exercised that right in Memphis, where the state now runs or oversees 22 schools. Twelve of Frayser’s 14 public schools, including Frayser High School, fell into that bottom 5 percent. As a result, most of the people at the table, including White, report to the ASD. Most, but not all.
We’ve written extensively on the ASD here at Bluff City Education, and to my knowledge we are the only such group to conduct a public in-depth analysis of the ASD before and after the takeover. Now that Governing.com is taking on this year-long project, I’m hopeful that they might add to the research and data-crunching that we’ve already done here at BCE.
The entire article is long but worth the read, and you can find it here. Buntin does a great job for someone not from Memphis in covering the intricacies of the community and delving deeply into the reasons behind the educational challenges we face. Excited to see the series continue!
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