State of Education in Tennessee Executive Summary – 2011-12 | Page 13

P ROMISING PR AC TI C E S

SECTION 1: Year-in-Revi ew

Maryville City Schools / Schools and community
are intertwined in Maryville
Maryville Mayor Tom Taylor called it a “wake-up call.”

The request also created three new categories for schools
which will receive differentiated support and rewards:
• Reward schools — the 10 percent of schools
throughout the state with the highest achievement
or overall growth
• Focus schools — the 10 percent of Tennessee’s
schools with the largest achievement gaps
• Priority schools — the bottom 5 percent of the state’s
schools in terms of academic performance.13
In addition to the implementation work that was done on a
statewide level, local school districts in Tennessee were busy
with significant implementation work as well.
The Greeneville, TN-based Niswonger Foundation continued
to implement the Northeast Tennessee College and Career
Ready Consortium (NETCO) initiative funded in large part by
a federal Investing in Innovation (i3) grant, with supporting
funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, JP Morgan
Foundation, and Rural School and Community Trust. NETCO
includes 29 high schools from 15 school districts and seven
partner institutions of higher education. The Consortium’s
primary goal is to promote a college-going culture among
Northeast Tennessee high school graduates who are
equipped with the skills to succeed at college-level work.
They aim to do this by supporting a network of college and
career counselors who visit participating schools weekly and
by expanding access to rigorous coursework through the
use of dual enrollment, distance and online learning, and
professional development for Advanced Placement teachers.
In 2011, the Niswonger Foundation provided AP training to
40 teachers and made progress in opening opportunities for
students in the region to enroll in college-level AP and dualenrollment courses. The initiative has also expanded
opportunities to take upper-level foreign language courses.
An independent evaluation of the program provides ongoing
feedback to Consortium staff to target resources where they
are most needed to achieve project goals.
In West Tennessee, Memphis City Schools and Shelby County
Schools began reconfiguration to a 23-member unified
countywide school board that will govern both Memphis
City Schools and Shelby County Schools until the systems
merge in August 2013. In addition, a separate 21-member
transition planning commission, comprised of both city and
county representatives and created by action of the General
Assembly to establish a plan for consolidation, was formed to
manage the transition process during this time. While these

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THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN TENNESSEE 2011–12

external circumstances initially seemed to put Memphis City
Schools’ ambitious Teacher Effectiveness Initiative plan (TEI)
at risk, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as the
local philanthropic community, reiterated their commitment
to the district and the future consolidated system. Josh
Edelman with the Gates Foundation said that Gates was
“committed to the consolidation” and “excited about seeing
it go forward” because it would allow the foundation to
“serve more kids over time.”14
In 2011, the Memphis City Schools’ Teacher Effectiveness
Initiative began the third year of its four-pronged plan
to make teachers more effective and more accountable.
The introduction and implementation of the new Teacher
Effectiveness Measure (TEM), one of Tennessee’s four teacher
evaluation models, began immediately upon approval from
the State Board of Education. As of January 2012, Memphis
City Schools reported that 15,000 observations had been
completed. “This process is neither quick nor easy,” said
Tequilla Banks, head of Teacher Talent and Effectiveness for
Memphis City Schools. “Getting classroom observations right
is tough work but a critical component.”15
Part of the work of implementing the TEM included:
• training and certifying 630 school and district-based
observers
• providing monthly “norming” training for all observers
to ensure inter-rater reliability
• educating all 7,000 teachers on the new system and
observation rubric
• developing new rubrics tailored for teachers in
specialty areas such as guidance counselors and special
education teachers.
Memphis City Schools also made significant progress in
recruiting high quality teachers through its partnership
with the Memphis-based TNTP (formerly The New Teacher
Project) office, known as STARS. The STARS office
worked closely with MCS departments to streamline the
staffing and recruiting timelines, fill 100 percent of the
vacancies by August 1, and place 190 candidates from
Teach For America, Memphis Teaching Fellows, and the
Memphis Teacher Residency in schools throughout the
city. In addition, Memphis City Schools, along