In a first, three Memphis schools to exit ASD, join state's charter commission

Toni Sudduth reviews verbs and adverbs with her student Sydney Tolbert during a in-person learning session at Libertas School of Memphis on Thursday, March 18, 2021.
Toni Sudduth reviews verbs and adverbs with her student Sydney Tolbert during a in-person learning session at Libertas School of Memphis on Thursday, March 18, 2021.

Three Memphis schools will exit the state-run Achievement School District and join the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission, a first for schools in the state's turnaround efforts.

Commissioners Friday unanimously approved recommendations from director Tess Stovall to bring Libertas School of Memphis, Cornerstone Prep Denver and Lester Prep under the commission's umbrella next school year.

The commission currently oversees four schools, and another three are scheduled to open under commission oversight in coming years.

As the new state body grows with the acceptance of the ASD schools, there are implications for its own framework and for the schools themselves, which, under the commission, will no longer be a student's designated neighborhood school.

In public hearings and applications, each of the operators stressed commitments to families and students of their respective communities in Frayser and Binghampton.

The approvals also bring about a quarter of the district's 27 turnaround schools out of the state's turnaround oversight; in December, as the commission held meetings in Memphis with the three schools it approved Friday, the ASD announced that its four direct-run schools would return to Memphis-Shelby County Schools in the new school year.

Libertas School of Memphis students stand in line for their Covid-19 test on Thursday, March 18, 2021.
Libertas School of Memphis students stand in line for their Covid-19 test on Thursday, March 18, 2021.

More: After a decade of state takeover, turnaround attempts, Tennessee returns four Frayser schools to SCS

2019 report: Tennessee's Achievement School District is failing students, unlikely to succeed

The three schools joining the charter commission are some of the success stories of the state district's turnaround efforts, which, with exception for the four direct-run schools, have been led by various charter operators. All but a couple of the ASD schools are in Memphis, and many of those are located in Frayser. The district, which began in 2012-13, was meant to improve the state's lowest performing schools.

Libertas, Cornerstone Prep Denver and Lester Prep each earned the state's "priority exit" designation, with students meeting certain academic achievement metrics or growth metrics, signaling improvement. Friday's approval transfers their existing charters agreements to the commission; Lester Prep's through 2023-24 and Cornerstone Prep Denver and Libertas through 2024-25.

Each of the schools presented some of the highlights in their applications to the commission, and touched on them again in community forums, where the operators and school administration presented, the community heard a presentation from Memphis-Shelby County Schools' charter office, and the state charter commission asked questions of the operators. In each case, parents spoke up in support.

Emily Wakabi  with her student Peytan Tate during a in-person learning session at Libertas School of Memphis on Thursday, March 18, 2021.
Emily Wakabi with her student Peytan Tate during a in-person learning session at Libertas School of Memphis on Thursday, March 18, 2021.

Some of the school performance highlights in their applications include:

  • Libertas, an elementary school in Frayser, was formerly Brookmeade School, and ranked in the bottom 1% of schools statewide. As Libertas, a rarity in a public Montessori school, the school has reached top growth designations, surpassing other ASD schools in academic performance, with Black students and students with disabilities outperforming peers at other Tennessee schools.

  • Cornerstone Prep-Denver, an elementary school in Frayser operated by Capstone Education Group, has regularly scored top growth scores and has seen students outperform other ASD students, particularly in math.

  • Lester Prep, a middle school in Binghampton also operated by Capstone Education Group, has also seen top growth scores for recent years and also shows top scores in math when compared to other ASD students.

Each of the schools plans to continue leasing or purchase its building, according to applications.

In the meeting Friday, commissioner Terence Patterson, also the CEO of Memphis Education Fund, complimented the strength of the community engagement at the schools' public hearings, as well as the leadership at the schools, overseen at Libertas by director Bob Nardo and at the two Capstone schools by Drew Sippel.

Patterson also asked fellow commissioners "that we continue to think about performance obviously on an absolute basis, but also on a relative basis in the context of the community and the students that are being served."

While the three schools have excelled by the standards of the turnaround district, some of the commission's performance framework includes absolute goals for achievement and other metrics.

Terence Patterson
Terence Patterson

"We know that this work is hard," Patterson continued. "I certainly have a great appreciation for the turnaround aspect, and as they transition into a new phase I do want us to always be mindful that the relative performance is just as important as the performance on the absolute basis."

Nardo also made the points to commissioners Friday and to parents at Libertas during the public hearing — a setting commissioner Derwin Sisnett described Friday as a "pep rally" — when he described the roars of parent and community engagement in the packed school space a "clinic of the possibilities of public education" after hearing more than a dozen public commenters speak up for the school, testaments that brought some to tears.

"We know, and we have shown, that children in communities like this can achieve at a far higher level than many would expect," Nardo said in December. "And at the same time, we need to make sure that we hold schools accountable for the growth of the children in front of them, and not apples to oranges comparison, to wealthy children in another community who face far fewer obstacles and have far more advantages."

Parents applauded.

Laura Testino covers education and children's issues for the Commercial Appeal. Reach her at laura.testino@commercialappeal.com or 901-512-3763. Find her on Twitter: @LDTestino

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Three Memphis schools to exit ASD, join state's charter commission