Yes, it is indeed incredible, but the school district having few problems with the federal No Child Left Behind law is in Memphis with the most impoverished and at-risk children in the state of Tennessee.
If it were not the children involved, the frenzy of the past several months by Nashville people with titles and journalists with columns would be laughable. A column that touted the good fortune of Metro having Mayor Karl Dean and Gov. Phil Bredesen available to take over Metro public schools under No Child Left Behind was a real hoot. It ignored Bredesen's political core curriculum that left more children behind than an early school bus. And Dean is merely a weaker version of Bredesen.
In the same newspaper in which the column appeared, it was subsequently reported that only 18 percent of Tennnessee children are ready for college once they graduate from high school, according to ACT numbers. Bredesen has been Tennessee's governor for almost six years now. That's not much of a record for him.
Metro's children deserve better than Dean, Bredesen and uninformed columnists. The dynamic Democratic duo also believe more in private schools than public ones. Bredesen sent his child to private school as Dean does with his children now.
This kind of double-standard is reminiscent of the old Rodney Dangerfield joke about the restaurant inviting customers to sample its "great food". Meanwhile, Rodney spots the cook going out to lunch. Rodney says, "Gee, if the food is so great then why is the cook going out to eat? Ah, I get no respect."
Neither do Metro's children.
Read the following story from the Memphis Commercial-Appeal on how school children there are prospering under No Child Left Behind. Nashville leaders should load up a bus, put their egos in their backpockets and go to Memphis to ask for advice and help.
The bottom line from Bluff City is that no one is coming to take over Memphis public schools. Why? Perhaps a better mayor, or a congressman of the integrity of Steve Cohen who is involved. You be the judge.
Memphis City Schools gets mixed report card
District improves, but some schools still lag
By Dakarai I. Aarons, Memphis Commercial Appeal
The news on No Child Left Behind for Memphis City Schools is a mixed bag of results, according to information released Monday by the Tennessee Department of Education.
While the district returned to good standing under No Child Left Behind, the number of individual schools in good standing decreased from 128 to 119.
In the good news category, the number of schools on the state's "high priority" list dropped by 11, including six schools that had long languished on the list of schools eligible for state takeover.
Memphis has 30 schools -- down from 41 the year before -- on the "high priority" list, which tracks schools that failed to meet federal benchmarks two years in a row. Twenty of those schools, however, improved in several categories, including 12 of the 15 schools that were eligible for state takeover last year.
The results released Monday show how close -- or far -- students are from meeting standards for reading and math proficiency, attendance and graduation rates.
Schools must meet benchmarks in 37 categories or use some other method approved by the state to be considered in good standing.
"The students, parents, teachers, and staff in schools that performed admirably, as well as those schools that continue to show improvement, are to be commended and should be encouraged by these results," said Supt. Kriner Cash in a prepared statement. Cash and board members are in Park City, Utah, at a reform governance retreat.
Not all the news was good for Memphis schools, however.
Memphis schools on the state's less-urgent "target" list, which places schools on watch for narrowly missing benchmarks in the first year, increased to 34 from 16 last year.
The number of target schools increased statewide as the federal benchmarks went up from 79 to 86 percent proficiency in math and 83 to 89 percent proficiency in reading and language arts..
That tripped up a number of schools in Greater Memphis. Shelby County's Woodstock Middle and Tipton County's Covington High also landed on the target list.
A number of Memphis schools used the "safe harbor" provision to meet the mark, which gives schools credit for making a 10 percent reduction in students who tested below proficient the year before and meeting either the attendance or graduation rate target, depending on grade level.
The number of schools that used "safe harbor," along with details on how individual schools fared on the state's exams, will likely be released by the state in November.
State officials had high praise for the work done in improving schools that had been on the state's failing list for years, such as Treadwell Elementary, Airways Middle, Vance Middle and East High.
"They are to be congratulated for what they've done," said Connie Smith, executive director of innovation, improvement, and accountability for the state department of education.
Smith said she was "particularly proud" of Vance, which had been on the list longer than any of the other schools.
Smith credited the work done by former Supt. Carol Johnson's "fresh start" plan for the improvements in many schools.
In those schools, which included Vance and Airways, principals and entire staffs were changed in an effort to boost student achievement.
But the work remains unfinished. Hamilton High, for example, is in the state's worst-performing category under NCLB.
Many staff were replaced there last year and Cash recently moved Michael Bates, credited with turning around Humes Middle School, into the principal's position at Hamilton.
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Barbara - East TN - I don't think we should have to put our names on the internet because it is not a safe thing to do. If you wish I will email you and give you my name and address.
The reason the schools in Memphis are so bad is because Memphis has a black majority. As you know they are still attempting to overcome
experiences that they never had in the first place.
Obama tells us that there is still much to be done - but white people must do it - because of course its all our fault and our responsibility.
I estimate that within another 15 generations blacks may be able to overcome because by that time the United States will be overwhelmed with immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East and the United States will no longer be such a challenging place to live.
You have a lot of salsa to talk about how bad our schools are in the United States and Tennessee. Much of our money goes to taking care of illegal aliens who are not welcome and not wanted in our country.
In our recent history our schools were number one in the world.
Then a Jew by the name of Jacob Javits changed our immigration laws so that we get immigrants from places other than Western Europe.
He did this in order to secure Jewish interests at the expense of the general welfare which has now turned our nation into a country of various groups with each seeking their own welfare - rather than a nation of One From Many.
Now we are overwhelmed with all these immigrants and are forced to give housing, food, schooling and health care to half of Mexico who, like Javits, call us racists if we don't give them everything that we have earned and built.
Our schools are 15th in the world. No telling how many kids in Memphis don't even speak English.
Others say they come here for a better life but I'm unaware of any reason why its my obligation to give someone from another country an opportunity for a better life.
It seems to me that if Mexicans want opportunity and a better life they should look to their own government.
Because the damn Jews run our government with their money our Christian children are spilling their blood killing Muslims and being killed by them and we are bankrupted.
The same assholes who sell us out to the Jews also sell us out to corporations so that we now have neoliberal economic policies and Globalism. There is no money for schools.
If you wish to make the schools in Tennessee better why don't you take it up with the Jews who run everything. They will help you if you're Hispanic because that means white people will lose power and people like you will get more power. That has been the Jewish strategy in taking over our government.
I view you as simply another Hispanic who like the Jews are seeking your own ethnic interests at the expense of the general welfare and the Untied States.
You treat us like this and then expect us to like you for it.
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