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Red state-blue state political shifts won’t affect education reform, including in Memphis, as much as the work that parents, teachers and philanthropists are willing to do, an education expert said Monday.
“In the next five years, big successes will be from the cities and states that can demonstrate dramatic improvement,” said Jon Schnur, executive director of New Leaders for New Schools.
NLNS is the nationally known partner hired by Memphis City Schools to infuse the principal ranks with outside talent.
“Memphis has a shot, and Tennessee has a shot. But the outcome is not inevitable,” he told a lunch crowd of educators, business leaders and philanthropists at the National Civil Rights Museum.
He reminded them that in five years Memphis could just as easily be “part of that fad of people who thought they could get the system to change.”
Beating the naysayers, Schnur said, will come down to how steadfast Memphians will be in supporting the work, starting in December when the state is expected to see a dismal report card reflecting the quantum leap in course standards and tests the state ushered in last year.
“There has been progress. We need to have an honest dialogue about how our kids are compared to where they need to be,” he said.
Schnur, co-founder of NLNS, was here to kick off a two-day leadership training in the city schools, part of national round of summits in each of the 10 cities where NLNS works.
The Hyde Family Foundations brought NLNS to Memphis in 2004. Since then, it has trained roughly 50 principals — 20 percent of the district’s leaders — touching 35,000 students.
Supt. Kriner Cash joined Schnur for questions Monday, praising NLNS for what its staff has done but also emphasizing the power of Memphis talent.
“While we are bringing in new talent, we also have some really good veteran talent,” he said.
Cash is feeling the frustration of teachers who say they are not included in his broad vision to improve their effectiveness, including how they will be evaluated and how the requirements for tenure will change.
He’s holding his first “Teacher Summit” from 4 to 6 p.m. today at the University of Memphis Holiday Inn, expecting thousands of teachers, he said, to talk with him in a candid setting.
“My biggest concern is how teachers are being brought into the conversation and if they see themselves as changes agents,” said Michael Becton, who works for Facing History and Ourselves. “I have met some people who don’t feel valued in the process. … There is frustration that they are seen as part of the problem. They need to be engaged at a higher level in terms of feeling part of the solution.”
Teachers have been assigned to committees that are testing new evaluation models and working out tenure issues. But there has been little resolution here or in Nashville on the prickly issue of how to evaluate teachers whose students do not take state tests and how much help less-effective teachers will get before they are replaced.
Jane Roberts: 529-2512
