Intensive Partnership Factsheet: Memphis City Schools (MCS)

Investment summary

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will invest $90 million to support Memphis City Schools in the implementation of groundbreaking approaches to ensure that all students have access to effective teachers in every classroom.

Background

Despite significant challenges—including a child-poverty rate that is among the highest in the nation as well as a history of reforms that have not had lasting impact—positive change is underway in Memphis City Schools (MCS).

New Momentum

MCS has gained momentum in the past year under the leadership of Superintendent Kriner Cash, hired in June of 2008. Cash, who was previously Chief of Accountability and System-wide Performance in Florida’s Miami-Dade County Public Schools, is implementing a comprehensive reform agenda that is showing promising early results. In a year, MCS realized achievement gains in elementary, middle, and high school math, 10th grade English and 11th grade writing assessments. The district also increased Advanced Placement and dual high-school and college enrollment, strengthened family and community partnerships, launched city-wide Exhibitions of Student Work, established several new regional school health clinics, and significantly improved school safety.

District leadership, the Board of Commissioners, and the Memphis Education Association (MEA) have collaborated to develop a bold plan to increase access to effective teachers for all students. The district is also engaged in state reform efforts to develop more rigorous academic standards and assessments through the Tennessee Diploma Project.

Challenges Remain

In spite of this momentum, there are still many challenges facing Memphis. Overall student achievement and graduation rates still need improvement. Only six percent of all MCS students who take the ACT (less than four percent of total students) receive college-ready scores in all four subject areas. It has also been difficult for the district to retain teachers. Nearly 20 percent of MCS teachers leave after their first year, and more than 40 percent leave within three years.

Key Components of Teacher Effectiveness Reform Plan

MCS is committed to dramatically boosting student achievement and college-ready graduation rates through the following actions:

Creating a common, agreed-upon process to define and measure effective teaching. The new Teacher Effectiveness Measure (TEM) will include multiple factors, including: growth in student learning; observation of teachers’ practices; perceptions of students, parents, and colleagues; and teacher knowledge in their subject area.
Increasing the number of effective teachers
- Enhance strategic Human Resources capacity by expanding the existing partnership with The New Teacher Project to handle all teacher recruitment and staffing services; Increase the pipeline of teacher candidates through better coordination with partners, including Teach for America, Memphis Teacher Residency, and Memphis Teaching Fellows.
- Raise the bar for tenure so that it is based on the TEM and link it to significant increases in compensation and roles/responsibilities.
- Boost the retention of effective teachers, particularly early in their careers, through performance-based retention incentives.
- Increase the turnover of the most ineffective teachers.
Supporting, rewarding, and better utilizing teachers.
- Improve the teacher evaluation process based on the TEM.
- Connect professional development opportunities to individual need, based on more frequent observation and feedback.
- Create new and differentiated career paths that promote teachers to increasing levels of influence (e.g., Beginning Teacher, Professional Teacher, Master Teacher).
- Give teachers greater rewards for differentiated roles and performance.
- Strategically place Master Teachers in the schools and classrooms where they are needed most.
Improving school culture and environments to foster effective teaching and learning.
- Provide additional training and support to principals, assistant principals, and aspiring principals through the newly formed MCS Urban Education Center and continue to partner with New Leaders for New Schools to target high-quality principal recruits.
- Engage external support for training teachers and principals on developing positive and productive school climates.
- Develop a new technology platform to support data-driven decision-making in order to improve teacher effectiveness.