MEMPHIS, TN - The Superintendent of Memphis City Schools says a new $90 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation won't be in vain. There are plenty of skeptics who question the impact it can have on the struggling system. The foundation picked the district to be one of four in the nation to improve teacher effectiveness. What’s the difference between this and other Memphis City Schools programs we've seen before?
The district has one of the worst graduation rates in the country. Its budget is bigger that the city’s itself. Money has been thrown at the problem before, but Supt. Kriner Cash says, this time, it's different.
"This is the first time this kind of support has gone into one single but critical element, and that is high-quality, high-value teachers," Cash said.
The initiative is centered around teacher effectiveness.
"We want to grow more effective teachers and spread them out across our district so that every child in every school every year in every subject has an effective teacher," said Cash.
Teachers will be monitored. Students will be surveyed. The best teachers will get paid more. But Memphis teachers already make more than their county counterparts. So who says it will work?
"It works if it's clear that that's what you're paying them for,” Cash said. “If you're paying teachers because they're master teachers and they have proven results with students and they're going to teach other teachers how to get those elevated results, then it makes sense to pay them more."
Supt. Cash says money alone won't make a difference.
"The whole community must get behind the Memphis City Schools,” he said. “If there's cynicism in Memphis, it's not because of what's been tried, it's because the effort hasn't been sustained."
On a conference call Thursday, members of the Gates Foundation said they're hopeful about the challenge Memphis presents. They say what better or more deserving of a place to implement these strategies than one that has struggled so much. Supt. Cash says aspects of the initiative are well under way. He hopes to see the first wave of results in 3 to 4 years.
