MEMPHIS, TN - The head of Memphis City schools wants a longer school year at a big price tag. This, after the district flunked the state's education report card. The $40 million dollar plan to extend the school year is getting mixed reviews, but most everyone agrees something needs to be done to save the struggling system.
6.5 hours a day and 180 days a year. That's how much time the state says kids must spend at school. Memphis City Schools Supt. Kriner Cash says only a fraction of that is spent learning, and that's not enough. He wants to add at least 20 days to the school year.
Lakeitha Simmons has one child in city school. She says she isn't happy with what she's seen from the her child's classes.
"The school system's a big reason we didn't want to stay here,” Simmons said. “We considered home schooling."
Tuesday, the city school system scored two Fs and two Ds on the state's academic achievement report card. It was one of the lowest ranked school districts in the state. Some parents say it's not the system that's broken.
"You can't blame the teachers all the time,” MCS Parent Marvin Davis said. “You can't blame the administrators all the time. Some of the fall belongs on the parents. Parents just let their kids run wild and do whatever, so the result is: Memphis City Schools are failing."
Dr. Richard Potts chairs the education department at Christian Brothers University. He says Memphis sees the same issues as most large urban school districts.
"They have lots of challenges,” Dr. Potts said. “And what we know is that the one variable that always correlates with student achievement is poverty."
He supports Dr. Cash's idea to give students more time.
"If we extend the school day, extend the school year, we know we can get better achievement,” Dr. Potts said. “It's all about how much time those kids in our city can be with quality teachers."
But getting the money to extend the school year will be tough. There's no guarantee more money will do the trick.
"What are they going to do with it,” Lakeisha Simmons asked. “What are they doing with the money they already have?"
"Until parents start stepping up and saying 'OK we're gonna raise our kids', we're going to have the same problem no matter how much time you add. You could add 24 hours to a school day, and we're going to have the same problem."
Dr. Potts says he agrees parents need to be more involved in the schools, but he's optimistic the city schools will make some strides with some of the plans being put into action.
Meanwhile, Shelby County Schools are patting themselves on the back after acing the state's report card for academic achievement. There are a few blemishes, however, on the system's recently spotless record.
The Shelby County School system was one of 12 in the state to get all As for academic achievement, but that's where the excellent marks end. Tougher standards by the state means improvements need to be made to maintain that 4.0 GPA.
Shelby County had some Cs and Bs in the state's “Value Added” category that measures students' growth from one year to the next.
"What Tennessee is going to get is a really true impression of what the expectations are for national standards," said Dr. Potts.
He says the state is raising the bar for schools. With the news standards, everyone should expect to see a drop, including Shelby County.
"Are they a little worried about the future about maintaining their straight-A status? Yeah," Dr. Potts said.
Although, he says it'll take a tougher benchmark for our kids to compete on a global scale.
"It gives us a much better reflection of what we need to do and every public school in Tennessee needs to do to ramp up those standards and things," Dr. Potts said.
