Your edlinks from the week of May 3rd through the 9th. Enjoy!
Local Memphis
Shelby County Schools presented a request before the County Commission today for an additional $14 million in operating funds for the coming year. This would include money for teacher bonuses, reading coaches and ACT prep programs, as well as money to hire additional guidance counselors and social workers. Additional funding was also requested to upgrade the districts technology for testing purposes. Some of this money would offset lost Race to the Top and Gates Foundation money. Chalkbeat reports that the County Mayor has only allocated an additional $6 million for all 25 county departments combined, including SCS.
Raleigh-Egypt Middle School tries out an innovative approach to reducing fights at its school – dividing students into teams and rewarding those who go long stretches of time without fights. According to news channel 3, two of these teams made it to 170 days without a fight in school.
The ASD outlined plans this week to increase its footprint in the Memphis community to 29 schools. This means an additional 2,028 students from SCS and an additional $18 million in per pupil funding, most of which will come out of the county district’s pocket. The ASD’s superintendent stated he believes that the ASD is an essential threat that will require SCS to improve. School board members quoted in the piece seem to have accepted the fact that the ASD is here to stay, and noted that the ASD has the authority to take over schools even if SCS doesn’t agree with the decision.
State
The Tennessean reports that despite its reputation as an “it” city, Nashville’s schools continue to struggle. In fact, the majority of students in Davidson county attend low performing schools. One visual suggests that a higher percentage of Davidson County students (76 percent) attend low performing schools than students in Shelby County (65 percent).
The Knoxville news has an interesting report on the increase of outside money being spent in Tennessee politics. Several education organizations have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past few years supporting or opposing select policies, including vouchers and charter school laws. These include the NEA’s local affiliate the TEA, StudentsFirst and Americans for Prosperity.
On a related note, the Tennessean attempts to explain why voucher legislation keeps failing despite expanding spending and legislative support for the measure. One official points the finger at the House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee, where Mike Harrison claims that Democrats are “holding the majority hostage.” The article also notes taht STudents First and the Tennessee Federation for Children have spent more than $1 million lobbying for vouchers.
BONUS: Governor Haslam’s Drive to 55 seems to be headed to early success, as 58,000 of the state’s 74,000 applicants have applied to the program offering free tuition at the state’s 13 community colleges and 27 applied technology colleges. The Drive to 55 program set the goal of having 55 percent of the state’s citizens having a post secondary degree or certificate by 2025. As an added bonus, Bellweather Education Partners released an analysis suggesting that Tennessee students were filing FAFSA’s at higher rates than all other states (61 percent).
National
A new report suggests that perhaps new teachers aren’t leaving at as quickly as we have been lead to believe. A longitudinal study beginning in 2007 found that 83 percent of first year teachers were still teaching in public schools 5 years later. Only 10 percent of teachers left after just one year. However, the report also noted that public school teachers are still experiencing high rates of mobility within the teaching profession. Math and science teachers were almost 4 times as likely to move from urban to suburban schools as to go the other way. The report also suggested methods for retaining teachers, including paring them with mentors and paying them more in their first year teaching. You can access the full report here.
A study by Harvard University economics professor Ronald Fryer suggests that the most effective method of improving success among charter school students tended to be the no excuses model of strictly controlling the environment, as well as giving frequent teacher feedback and PD.
Follow Bluff City Education on Twitter @bluffcityed and look for the hashtag #iteachiam and #TNedu to find more of our stories. Please also like our page on facebook.
The post EdLinks: ASD Expands, Nashville Schools Hidden Struggle appeared first on Bluff City Education.
