Monday, December 11, 2006

Memphis City Schools Gets Low Marks In Communications 101

As a general rule, governments and public agencies do relatively poor jobs of communicating.

Unfortunately, that’s especially true for Memphis City Schools, and it’s regrettable, because if there’s any public entity who needs to be good at communicating effectively with the public, it should be the one that on average spends about $95,000 an hour, 24/365.

This is on our minds today, because as we lamented yesterday, the city district often finds itself on the losing side in the battle for positive public perceptions when conflict arises with Shelby County Schools.

It’s a shame, because winning the hearts and minds of county taxpayers should be a priority for the city district. And most frustrating of all, there is some good news that deserves to be heard.

The Mantra

Superintendent Carol Johnson’s mantra is Every Day, Every Child, College Bound, and although she gets some pushback from some who think vocational education deserves equal billing, she’s right on target. The skills and knowledge needed to enter college are the same ones that are needed whatever decision students make about their future.

There’s no question that the most powerful weapon that Memphis City Schools has is its superintendent, but so far, she’s been unable to translate her popularity into improved public opinions about city schools. As a result, the prevailing public opinion is largely this: nothing has changed, and worse, there’s really nothing that can be done to improve things.

The opinions are buttressed by the culture of the district, resistance by some administrators and principals to support her ideas, and a lack of confidence that her programs will bear fruit. Regardless of these, Memphis City Schools itself is guilty of failing to be as assertive as it needs to be to send the message to the public that things are changing.

No area of government generates more reports, more statistics, and more measurements than public education, and that’s certainly true for an urban district like Memphis City Schools.

Some Good News For A Change

Here’s just a couple of hopeful statistics that we think should be shared with the public to combat the persistent feeling of helplessness:

· Memphis City Schools does better than the other three metro districts in Tennessee in educating African-American students.

· Memphis City Schools has cut the dropout rate 23 percent in two years.

At a time when Dr. Johnson is hammering home her message, some supporting documentation would go a long way toward influencing the opinion of the public who foots the bills for schools. Actually, in our minds, there would be value in mounting what would be tantamount to a political campaign, because in truth, Memphis City Schools is fighting for the public’s vote of confidence. And, if Memphis is to reduce the number of people leaving the city, there’s nothing that would be more persuasive than convincing the public that schools are improving.

TCAP Averages

For example, in our reading of the TCAP results, Memphis City Schools’ two-year average of African-American students who are proficient and advanced is higher than the average of Knox, Nashville/Davidson, and Hamilton Counties. Specifically, the Memphis district leads the state in reading for K-8 and 9-12 – 81% and 86% respectively. Meanwhile, the cumulative average of the other three metro areas was 77.7% and 82.3%, and even taken separately, none of the other districts surpassed Memphis. That’s an impressive statistic to us, particularly in light of the fact that the other metro areas have consolidated school systems, so their scores include suburban African-Americans who generally score higher than their urban counterparts.

In math, the average for Memphis City Schools was only marginally better than the average of the three other metros, but it was still better. When the districts were taken separately, Knox County bested Memphis in 9-12 math.

As for the dropout rate, the Tennessee Department of Education Report Card reports that the Memphis City Schools’ cohort dropout rate has declined from 19.8 percent in 2004 to 15 percent this year. When the public costs for students who drop out of school – seen in incarceration, social services, workforce training and more – weighs down budgets of the public sector, there’s nothing more important that Memphis City Schools can do than get more students to their graduation exercises. After all, if every child is to be college bound, first, we have to get them to graduation.

It’s not our intent to be Pollyannish about the challenges facing Memphis City Schools and its students, but it is our intent to argue that the district needs to be more forceful and strategic in painting a more accurate portrait of the learning that’s taking place here today. And it begins by coming to grips with the political context in which all of this plays out.

5 comments:

Michael Roy Hollihan said...

While I do not agree that vocational education should be slighted for a "college only" track, it is very heartening to hear that drop-outs are going down. That's a sure sign of something being done right within the system.

On the other hand, the way the MCS publicly reports its NCLB data is deliberately obfuscatory. The past two years, they've reported the data not in the raw NCLB format but in a format of their own devising which hides unpleasant data within a fog of "feel good" intended to portray the situation in a way that helps MCS while blurring the truth. That should stop.

Steve Steffens said...

Let's turn that spin around for just a moment. From what I understand, the NCLB data is written in a manner than works against public school systems, such that you don't get a true picture, only one that's more pessimistic than real.

Smart City Consulting said...

Mike: The NCLB results from every school district are reported on the Tennessee Department of Education in a consistent fashion, and as a result, we find that the best source of information. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Smart City Consulting said...

By the way, you might want to read our November 13 post about how states are lowering the standards in a way that inflates their performance under NCLB.

Fernandes said...

"states are lowering the standards in a way that inflates their performance under NCLB."

Under NCLB states come up with their own assessments. There is nothing uniform about the assessments nationally so when you hear comparisons among states they are not valid. NCLB is one of the most ridiculous pieces of legislation ever in terms of measuring performance and meeting the established mandates.