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The operator of the last charter schools in Tennessee’s waning Achievement School District is seeking to continue managing them as part of their original school system in Memphis.
A decade ago, the State of Tennessee took over Kirby Middle and Hillcrest High schools due to low academic performance and assigned them to a charter management group called Green Dot Public Schools, now known as IOTA Community Schools.
The schools didn’t improve enough to exit the ASD on their own under a turnaround plan that was never meant to last more than a decade.
But now, with its 10-year contracts with the ASD soon to expire, IOTA has applied with Memphis-Shelby County Schools for new charter agreements to manage the two campuses in southeast Memphis beginning with the 2026-27 school year.
IOTA already is transitioning Wooddale Middle, the third and final Memphis school leaving the ASD, to reopen this fall under a new contract between IOTA and the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.
Last fall, the commission authorized IOTA’s new charter after overturning the Memphis school board’s decision to deny its application to continue operating Wooddale.
Planning for the future of the Achievement School District’s last three schools — and its 1,352 students — foreshadows changes ahead for the state’s most ambitious and aggressive school turnaround model, which had 33 schools in its portfolio at its peak in 2016.
The initiative, created under a 2010 state law as part of Tennessee’s federal Race to the Top initiative, has been marred by painful takeovers of neighborhood schools, contentious handoffs to charter networks, and mostly abysmal student performance on state tests.
Related story: Tennessee’s costly, disruptive school turnaround work didn’t help students long term, says research
Last year, a proposal to eliminate the ASD passed the Tennessee Senate but a different version to revamp the program stalled in the House, even as several of the GOP-controlled legislature’s top Republican leaders acknowledged that the model has failed and should be replaced.
Gov. Bill Lee’s administration is expected to propose changes this year, but neither his office nor the state education department has said what that might look like.
Elizabeth Lane Johnson, the governor’s press secretary, confirmed Thursday that Lee’s administration was “working with stakeholders to consider legislation around the Achievement School District.”
A potential successor could be the likely expansion of a small pilot turnaround initiative that began in 2022 with five low-performing schools. It has received generally positive reviews.
The antithesis of the Achievement School District, the pilot model emphasizes collaboration over takeover and does not use charter management organizations to lead its turnaround work. Instead, low-performing schools partner with an independent turnaround expert and a locally appointed committee to create and implement an improvement plan emphasizing data, coaching, and making adjustments in real time.
In Memphis, Trezevant High School and Hawkins Mill Elementary have shown marked improvement under the pilot program with the aid of turnaround consultant Cognia.
Other schools still in the pilot are Jere Baxter Middle School in Nashville and Lincoln Elementary in Jackson-Madison County, both using Ed Direction as their turnaround consultant, with mixed results. Orchard Knob Middle, in Chattanooga, dropped out of the program before it started after Hamilton County school board members said an existing improvement plan was already working.
Fate of the last two ASD schools is uncertain
The future of the last two schools exiting the ASD will be decided this year after staff with Memphis-Shelby County Schools reviews IOTA’s applications and recommends whether to approve them.
Both campuses serve mostly students of color, more than half of whom are considered economically disadvantaged. According to the state’s most recent school report card, Kirby Middle made average progress for its students in 2023-24 and was graded an F by the state. Hillcrest High made below-average progress for its students and was graded a D.
Related story: 2023-24 letter grades are out for schools. Here’s what they show.
If the Memphis school board denies IOTA’s applications, the network could appeal those decisions to the state commission, which has the power to transition more ASD schools from one state-run district to another state-run district — just as it’s in the process of doing with IOTA’s Wooddale Middle.
Adding to that discussion could be a new charter-friendly proposal from the governor to create ways for charter operators to bypass their local elected school boards and apply directly to the state commission for authorization.
If the legislature passes the governor’s bill, beginning July 1, any school board whose decision to deny a charter application is overturned by the state three times within three years could be bypassed, allowing a charter operator to apply directly to the state commission for authorization during the next five years.
Appealing to the commission isn’t a slam dunk, however. Since it began hearing appeals in 2021, the panel has sided with local school boards on half of their application denials.
State commission is familiar with ASD’s last charter operator
The commission already has one IOTA school in its portfolio.
Bluff City High School opened in Memphis in 2017 when IOTA was part of the Green Dot Public Schools network based in California. Last summer, the network’s charter schools in Memphis transitioned to IOTA, a new Tennessee-based network, after Green Dot ended its expansion efforts in Tennessee and Texas.
Asked Thursday whether she’d prefer to operate under the oversight of Memphis-Shelby County Schools or the state commission, IOTA Executive Director Jocquell Rodgers said she can’t compare them because the local district has never authorized one of the network’s schools.
“My goal has always been to forge a relationship with the local district because I believe we serve the same children,” Rodgers said. “But I will say that I’ve enjoyed working with the state charter commission. Their expectations are very clear, and our relationship has helped us build stronger processes as an organization and stronger academic outcomes for our students.”
For instance, when the commission put Bluff City High School on academic probation in 2022, the state was clear about necessary improvement steps, Rodgers said. Last month, in recognition of the school’s progress, the commission moved Bluff City off academic probation to a lesser intervention level.
The state Board of Education rated both the commission and Memphis-Shelby County Schools as “exemplary” in its most recent evaluations of charter authorizers in Tennessee.
The commission currently has six former ASD charter schools in its portfolio, most of which left the turnaround program under a 2021 state law letting higher-achieving ASD schools bypass their home districts to transition to the commission’s control:
- Cornerstone Prep Denver
- Cornerstone Prep Lester
- Lester Prep
- LEAD Neely’s Bend
- Libertas School of Memphis
- Promise Academy Spring Hill
All of those former ASD schools are in Memphis except LEAD Neely’s Bend, which is in Nashville.
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
