Three national charter school networks have scaled back plans to take over failing schools in Memphis through Tennessee鈥檚 state-run district, underscoring the challenges and risks involved in the high-stakes, politically charged endeavor of school turnarounds.
What has unfolded in Memphis in recent months is a complex tale of balancing old systems with the new in the pioneering work of state-led school turnaround efforts that have only been brought to scale in one city: New Orleans. As other states look into launching their own state-run districts, experts say the situation in Tennessee鈥檚 Achievement School District could offer valuable lessons when it comes to tapping charter operators to turn around troubled schools in high-needs communities.
Some of the challenges that have confronted charter-management organizations in Memphis echo concerns from charter network leaders five years ago, when many were reluctant to get involved in federally driven school turnaround efforts. At the time, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan exhorted them to play a key role in the Obama administration鈥檚 $3.5 billion initiative to raise achievement in the nation鈥檚 most chronically failing schools, but ultimately, only a small number of CMOs opted to do so.
鈥淚 think every charter-management-organization leader would be the first to say that it鈥檚 a tremendous educational challenge,鈥� said Joshua L. Glazer, an associate professor of education at George Washington University in Washington who is studying the Achievement School District, or ASD. 鈥淓ven national networks who are used to working with disadvantaged communities would say the level of need in Memphis is very high.鈥�
The latest setback in the ASD鈥檚 attempt to improve schooling in Memphis took place late last month when the high-performing Houston-based YES Prep Public Schools suddenly scrapped plans two years in the making to take over Airways Middle School in August, and said it would leave Memphis altogether. Last fall, the Knowledge Is Power Program, or KIPP, and California-based Green Dot Public Schools, also scaled back plans to take over troubled schools in the ASD, although they weren鈥檛 as far along in the process. Both groups remain active in Memphis, are running other schools through the ASD, and plan to expand.
Inheriting Challenges
The ASD was created by the state to turn around Tennessee鈥檚 bottom 5 percent of schools. Since 2012, it has taken over 23 schools and handed the majority to charter operators. Most of those schools are in the city of Memphis, which is part of the Shelby County school district.
But rather than starting from scratch with a small group of families, as most CMOs are accustomed, the operators have had to take on students already in the schools鈥� attendance zones. Although the takeover deals usually come with a building鈥攕omething charter schools across the country struggle to obtain鈥擟MOs also inherit the challenges.
Only one in six students in schools eligible for takeover read and write at grade level, 16.3 percent qualify for special education, and 96 percent qualify for free and reduced-price meals.
鈥淵ou鈥檝e got charters that have been doing this for years, and they鈥檝e gotten great results from Day One because it is easier to open a school where the families pick you than to do neighborhood-conversion work,鈥� said Chris Barbic, the superintendent of the ASD, who founded YES Prep.
Mr. Barbic maintains that the reasons the three CMOs have pulled back are not related.
CMOs coming into the ASD must navigate an environment where families may mistrust the change being foisted on them and a system that involves multiple actors from the state and local levels. For charters that have built their models on independence and choice, this setting can require a major reworking of their systems.
YES Prep officials say their withdrawal was based largely on the fact that key policies changed midstream. Primary among them, the Shelby County school district announced it would no longer locate charters and the regular public schools they were slated to take over in the same building. That meant that instead of taking over a school one grade at a time as planned, YES Prep would have had to adopt all three grades of Airways Middle School at once.
鈥淲ith one grade, you鈥檙e able to build a structure of excellence with a small group of students who can lead the way,鈥� said Jason Bernal, YES Prep鈥檚 chief executive officer. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had tremendous success with that.鈥� YES Prep officials said they could either abandon the model they are familiar with, or strike out into uncharted territory with a model they couldn鈥檛 guarantee would produce results. The CMO has been serving families in the Houston area since 1998 and has been widely praised for its student-achievement results in low-income communities.
The model of growing one grade at a time, sometimes called 鈥渇resh start,鈥� is not unique to YES Prep; it鈥檚 central to many KIPP schools as well.
KIPP currently has seven schools in Memphis. The network was given the opportunity to move an existing KIPP school of 6th graders into a state-labeled 鈥減riority鈥� school, or one that falls into the bottom 5 percent. KIPP would have absorbed the 7th grade the first year and the 8th grade the following year as those students moved up. When Shelby County district officials made taking over all grades at the same time a condition of the move, KIPP decided not to go forward, according to network officials.
Community Buy-In
Then there was Green Dot, which faced staunch opposition from some community members to its takeover of Raleigh-Egypt High School in Memphis. The charter operator opted to heed the community鈥檚 wish to give the school鈥檚 still-new principal a chance to turn things around.
鈥淭he principal of Raleigh-Egypt started just last summer. Even though it was a priority school, they felt strongly in the community that they were on a good trajectory and they wanted to see how that would go,鈥� said Megan A. Quaile, the chief growth officer for Green Dot and the interim executive director for Tennessee.
Ms. Quaile said Green Dot made the decision in concert with the ASD to pull back, for now.
A large, multistate network, Green Dot prefers to start running all grades of a school at once, and robust community organizing is a major piece of its takeover strategy.
When Green Dot was poised to assume leadership last year of another ASD campus in Memphis, Fairley High School, the network hosted community events and pulled together alumni, parents, and students to advise on the transition. Green Dot flew the group to California to see the CMO鈥檚 existing schools.
鈥淎 student at Fairley High School is going to have different credibility and level of access talking to other students than I鈥檓 going to,鈥� she said.
Although many charter school experts resist singling out one charter school model best suited for taking over schools through a state-run turnaround district, many agree flexibility is vital to navigate a panoply of actors. In Memphis, those include the Shelby County district, the ASD, and a community group set up to match low-performing schools slated for takeover with operators.
鈥淚 think that鈥檚 the headline there, you鈥檙e asking operators to work in a more uncertain and somewhat more unstable environment where you have more actors who are involved and you鈥檙e depending on, and that鈥檚 challenging,鈥� said Mr. Glazer of George Washington University.
Other pressures鈥攊ncluding intense news-media scrutiny鈥攔aise the stakes even more for operators. Despite that, said Nina Rees, the president and chief executive officer of Washington-based National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, charter advocates don鈥檛 want CMOs to turn their backs on turnaround work.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important for us to challenge ourselves to meet the needs of these students,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ecause we鈥檙e often told that the neediest students are not coming to our schools, because their parents are not choosing our schools.鈥�
