State-led district expects to take over more Nashville schools
After concentrating efforts almost exclusively in Memphis for its first two years, a state-led district that has handed the keys of low-performing schools to charter school operators is poised to expand its footprint in Nashville.
Three to five Metro Nashville schools could be in line for charter conversions courtesy of the Achievement School District over the next two years, beginning with one in 2015-16, Chris Barbic, the ASD's superintendent, told The Tennessean.
The ASD, which is authorized by state law to take over schools in the bottom 5 percent of academic performance statewide, has overseen schools for the past two years in Tennessee, with intervention expanding to 23 schools and 6,500 students this fall.
Only the ASD's Brick Church College Prep, operated by the charter organization LEAD Public Schools, is in Nashville, with the rest in Memphis.
"Over the course of the next 24 months, we're expecting to grow our presence in Nashville," Barbic said, adding that growth would be predicated on the quality of charter operators that seek entry. "We're fully anticipating some of the focus on Memphis starts to shift here and we start opening up more schools here."
More gains needed
Though Barbic and ASD officials are still sticking to their well-publicized bold goal of lifting the state's lowest-performing schools to its top 25 percent in five years, gains would need to pick up.
Results from the 2013-14 Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, released Wednesday, show collective gains among the ASD's inaugural six middle schools in math, science and reading and language arts.
Yet the increases, while outpacing state averages, are decidedly lower than the annual bumps of 8 percentage points that Barbic has said the ASD must average to reach its goal.
Reading scores, meanwhile, still aren't back at the levels before the ASD's arrival in 2012.
The ASD team pointed out that four ASD schools have already risen out of the bottom 5 percent of Tennessee's schools and three are on track to emerge to the top 25 percent.
Its growth among high schools, which includes 263 students, was among the highest in the state, officials say.
"Not only is the idea of going to the top quartile in five years possible, but we've got half of our schools that are actually doing it," Barbic said.
"If we're going to hit our goals, we need to be making progress faster," he acknowledged, "but I think two years in, things are moving in the right direction."
Schools an unknown
While an increased Nashville presence would still be considerably smaller than the focus in Memphis, the ASD's expansion here could further stoke an already intense debate on charter school growth. Twenty-five publicly financed, privately led charters are set to operate in Nashville by next year.
It's unclear which struggling Metro schools the ASD would choose to enter. Five Metro schools fall in the state's bottom 5 percent, but the state is set to release an updated list Aug. 18. Charter groups wouldn't be matched to Nashville schools until later this year.
"I don't have a reaction yet because I don't know what schools we have that would fall into that bottom 5 percent," Metro Director of Schools Jesse Register said.
Pointing to plans unrelated to the ASD, Register noted that the Metro school board this spring approved a proposal from charter school operator KIPP to convert a still-unidentified Metro school into a charter. He said he hadn't talked to Barbic about the ASD's intentions.
Framework, however, for a larger ASD presence in Nashville has been in place. The ASD two years ago authorized LEAD Public Schools for conversions of two additional unidentified schools in Nashville and California-based Rocketship for a total of eight. Barbic indicated that LEAD, pending approval of its board, probably would be a contender to begin ASD's expansion in Nashville next fall.
ASD officials intend to review this year's performance of its third-year schools, with plans to consider pulling operators that still haven't shown signs of producing a turnaround.
The ASD directly runs five schools, while charter operators mange the others. Barbic said the ASD wouldn't be directly running schools in Nashville. He also said his team has discovered that a "phase-in approach" — whereby a charter group expands at a school one year at a time — has produced the greatest results.
Huge gains
The ASD directly runs five schools, while charter operators manage the others. Barbic said the ASD wouldn't be directly running schools in Nashville. He also said his team has discovered that a "phase-in approach" — whereby a charter group expands at a school one year at a time — has produced the greatest results.
Among those where this is true is Nashville's Brick Church College Prep, which in its second year saw huge gains — more than 20 percentage points each in reading and math — after producing mixed results in its initial year.
"Our kids' academic deficits didn't occur in one year, and we're not going to fix them completely in one year," Chris Reynolds, CEO of LEAD Public Schools, said of the jump. "This is a multiyear effort.
"Now that we have two years of data, it looks like we're on track."
The ASD came to Tennessee when the state legislature rewrote education law to land $501 million in federal Race to the Top dollars. The ASD received $22 million in Race to the Top funds and has now spent around $18 million.
Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and on Twitter@joeygarrison.