MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In tonight’s Ransom Note: failing our kids.
Tennessee is getting pretty good at it. And one of the best examples is the state’s Achievement School District or "ASD."
It started with good intentions about ten years ago, giving Tennessee a way to take over the bottom five percent of failing schools and blowing them up with new leadership, new teachers, and in some cases hiring charter schools to do it.
Today, we learned four schools in Frayser (Frayser, Corning, Georgian Hills, and Whitney Achievement Elementaries) are leaving the achievement school district and returning to Shelby County Schools.
That means 800 students and their families will now have to transition back to being SCS Schools.
SCS School Board Memphis, Stephanie Love, hopes that goes more smoothly than when the schools were taken over.
“People don’t like when I use the word ‘hostile takeover,’ but as a parent, that’s what it felt like,” said Stephanie Love.
Unfortunately, the ASD has proven to be a waste of time and money, and studies have shown it hasn’t really turned around anything when it comes to public education.
The state is planning a reboot early next year by hiring its first ever “School Turnaround Superintendent.”
We’ll see how that goes. In the meantime, SCS is getting more than eight million more dollars as a result of the change, let’s hope it spends the money wisely.
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