1. education
2. school

Charter schools scramble for students in
Memphis as options grow and enrollment
dwindles
YES Prep's high-profile withdrawal prompts reflection
by Daarel Burnette on April 21, 2015 5:00 am
PHOTO: Kyle Kurlick
Airways Middle School is a behemoth of a building. Stacked two stories high and stretching
almost eight city blocks, the school sits just off Interstate 240, a few hundred yards from the
edge of runways at Memphis International Airport. Despite its enrollment capacity of 800
students, the school has averaged fewer than 300, the result of years of poor academic
performance and a recession that prompted thousands of neighborhood families to move
elsewhere.
But charter school officials at Houston-based YES Prep viewed Airways as an opportunity
and Memphis as their entree to expand beyond their Texas borders for the first time. Widely
regarded as one of the nation’s best charter networks, the operator envisioned transforming
Airways into a bustling hub of learning and education reform. Their plan: Parents would
learn about the charter’s small class sizes, strong teaching force and commitment to get
their students into college. They would vote with their feet and entrust their children’s
education to YES Prep, as many parents have in Houston, where more than 10,000
students are enrolled in the network’s charter schools, with another 6,000 on waiting lists.
Last month, however, after two years of on-theground planning and preparation by a YES Prep
team in Tennessee, the network’s board of
directors in Houston pulled the plug on the
Airways project, as well as its plans eventually to
operate five other charter schools in Memphis.
According to internal documents, the decision
came after leaders determined they would not be
able to recruit enough students to create a
sustainable model, among other challenges.
Enrollment has been a major challenge for charter operators in Memphis, prompting
serious reflection from both supporters and detractors about the role and viability of charters
in the city’s overall education improvement strategy. Many schools, both charter and
traditional, sit half empty, and administrators must scramble to adapt to a shrinking local
population and high student mobility rate.
“If we don’t have a sustainable approach to serve at the highest level possible the way we
have in Houston . . . we are not going to take that risk on Memphis kids,” said Bill Durbin,
superintendent of YES Prep’s expansion efforts. Memphis students, he said, already have
borne the brunt of numerous school closings and educational disruptions. “We’re not going
to be the operator that [adds to] that.”
Fertile ground for reform
On its face, Memphis appears to be an attractive city for charter organizations such as YES
Prep seeking to bring new energy to a beleaguered education landscape in a high-needs
community.
With a high concentration of struggling public schools and millions of education dollars
funneling in from philanthropists and the Obama administration’s Race to the Top grant,
Memphis is at the front lines in a battleground state in the education change movement.
Leading the turnaround work is Tennessee’s Achievement School District (ASD), launched
in 2011 to turn the trajectory of the state’s worst-performing schools. And at the helm of the
ASD is Chris Barbic, who helped to found YES Prep in 1998 and ushered the network’s rise
to national prominence before leaving Texas charters to oversee Tennessee’s pioneering
initiative.
It was amid this backdrop that the ASD attracted nationally recognized charter networks to
Memphis. Some — such as California-based Aspire Public Schools and Texas-based YES
Prep — were making their first ventures out of state.
But established charter operators quickly learned that Tennessee, while fertile ground for
growth, also presented challenges.
While most charters across the nation can recruit students from anywhere in their city, the
Achievement School District chose a different model in which charter schools took over an
existing school and then could enroll students only from their neighborhood zones, similar to
how traditional schools operate. Barbic proclaimed that Tennessee charters would be put to
the “ultimate test” of turning around struggling schools while playing by the same rules as
traditional schools — an ambitious model that drew national praise.
In addition, enrollment in Memphis fluctuates constantly under a high mobility rate of 37
percent, according to a recent study. Many students register at the last minute or leave midyear under changing family circumstances, making the job of school administrative
planning, staffing and programming difficult.
Half empty
Traditional local school districts have grappled with enrollment challenges in Memphis for
decades.
Struggling under generational poverty and decimated by factory closings that turned
bustling communities into aging and emptying neighborhoods, Memphis has one of the
highest home foreclosure rates in the nation. With a population of 653,000, its 101,000 K-12
students are spread thin throughout its 320 square miles of land — more real estate than in
New York City, which has a population of 8.4 million. And for many low-income
neighborhoods, access to public transportation is poor or non-existent.
To deal with dwindling enrollments and budget shortfalls, school leaders in Memphis have
closed 16 schools over the last three years, impacting 3,555 students. Last month, the
Board of Education for Shelby County Schools voted to close three more, including Airways
Middle, at the end of this school year.
The ASD and its authorized charters have found enrollment issues equally challenging.
According to a Chalkbeat analysis of district and state records, enrollment has declined at
eight of the 12 schools that the ASD has completely taken over since beginning its work in
2012. At Westside Achievement School in the city’s Frayser community, for example, just
370 students attend the school, down from 510 students in 2011 when the former Memphis
City Schools operated it before merging with Shelby County Schools in 2013.
Data source: Achievement School District and TN Department of Education
Credits: Sarah Glen/Chalkbeat
Elsewhere, while charter operators are close to their enrollment targets, the numbers are far
from capacity.
The average ASD school sits only half full, with a significant percentage of students
transferring in or out of school throughout the year. The challenge has prompted charter
officials to launch aggressive marketing campaigns that include billboards, door-to-door
canvassing and stuffing flyers in parents’ mailboxes in an effort to attract and retain
students.
“A lot of these schools were grossly undersubscribed when we took them on,” explains Elliot
Smalley, the ASD’s chief of staff. “Enrollment in priority schools historically has been a
challenge because of low performance and parents divesting. It’s a challenge we inherit and
take on when we go into certain neighborhoods. It’s not specific to the ASD. It’s endemic to
the city.”
Changing environment
While public education in Memphis languished for decades without sweeping intervention,
the landscape and players have changed significantly in the last five years.
Charged with turning around the state’s bottom 5 percent of academically ranked schools,
the ASD now oversees 22 public schools in Memphis and turned most over to nonprofit
charter organizations — mostly at the expense of Shelby County Schools, which has lost
both students and per-pupil state funding in the process.
With one-third of its district eligible for ASD intervention, Shelby County Schools has
responded by aggressively growing its own turnaround initiative known as the Innovation
Zone, or iZone, a set of schools that operate under similar flexibilities as ASD schools but
are directly run by the district. The program, while expensive, has yielded steady test gains.
By next school year, almost one-tenth of the district’s students will be under the iZone
umbrella.
In the meantime, Tennessee’s legislature is
expected to vote on school voucher legislation this
month that would provide state-funded
scholarships for families wanting to send their
children to private schools — potentially siphoning
off even more students from local districts.
Dorsey Hopson
PHOTO: Kyle Kurlick
In Memphis, the convergence of factors has set
up a competitive education environment among
charter and traditional schools as they scramble
for students and accompanying state funding.
“This is what competition looks like,” said Shelby County Superintendent Dorsey Hopson
earlier this year as district leaders grappled with a $125 million budget shortfall and
dwindling enrollments.
Charter-friendly legislation
Despite the much-ballyhooed policy of ASD charters playing under similar enrollment
restrictions as traditional schools, the Tennessee Department of Education initiated
legislation this year that would allow ASD-operated charters to expand their enrollment
footprint beyond traditional neighborhood zones.
“This is less about not being full; and it’s more about just giving families an option if they
want to send their kid to one of our schools,” said Barbic, speaking in favor of the proposal
in February to the Senate Education Committee.
Under the measure, any ASD-authorized charter school operator could enroll students
beyond the zone structure — as long as out-of-zone students don’t exceed 25 percent of
the school’s total enrollment. The out-of-zone students also must come either from an
underperforming school, from a low-income family so that they qualify for free or reduced
price lunch, or have a family member who works at an ASD school.
State Education Commissioner Candice McQueen
supports the bill as a way to give struggling
students seats in turnaround schools. Barbic
estimates the revised policy could draw about 400
out-of-zone students to ASD charters — less than
5 percent of the ASD’s total student population.
PHOTO:
Daarel
Burnette
ASD Superintendent Chris Barbic
However, critics charge that the change would give charters an unfair competitive
advantage over traditional public schools by allowing them to push out low-performing or
special education students and improve their schools’ overall test scores — a process
known as “creaming.”
“It’s almost a bait-and-switch situation if that’s the way it’s playing out,” said Marcus
Pohlmann, a political science professor at Rhodes College who has studied the history of
Memphis schools. “I’m not saying it’s their intention, but it could easily become that. In that
case, we’re expanding charter schools without directly addressing the real serious
underlying problem of educating the folks living in these communities.”
Charter administrators say their intention is not to “cherry pick” their student population but
to serve students in surrounding neighborhoods — and anyone else who shows up at their
doors wanting the best education possible for their children.
“While we are the neighborhood school, we work just as hard to recruit students to our
school,” said Allison Leslie, executive director of Aspire’s Memphis schools, which operates
three schools in the city. “Parents still vote with their feet. We have to make a great school
where they want to come.”
Approved last week by the Tennessee House, the legislation next faces a crucial vote in the
Senate, expected this week.
But no matter the outcome, the effort reflects the realities and challenges of today’s
environment for charter school advocates.
“[Charter school leaders] are trying to reconcile two really important principles that
sometimes bump into each other,” explains Chris Gibbons, who runs Strive, a charter
organization in Denver. “One is that charters are public schools and should be serving
comparable incoming populations if they are going to be compared with the same criteria.
But the second equally important principle is we want a system that allows for choice for
families. If you’re too far on the equity side, you eliminate choice for family. If you’re too far
on the choice side, schools are serving really different groups of children.”
Charter pitch
The legislation’s outcome will help determine where DeVonte Payton is allowed to knock on
doors in Memphis’ poorest neighborhoods as he spreads the gospel of KIPP Memphis
Collegiate Schools, a charter management organization where he is the director of student
recruitment. KIPP Memphis operates three ASD-authorized schools and another four
authorized by Shelby County Schools.
“To and through college!” Payton tells
families with children who are eligible to
attend a KIPP school, pointing out that
college advisers await their children in
middle school and pledging that KIPP will
shepherd their children to get a high school
diploma, a college degree and wider
opportunities.
DeVonte Payton
PHOTO: Daarel Burnette
In KIPP strongholds such as Newark, N.J.,
and New York City, charters bustle with
activity and brim with students, their
hallways lined with college pennants to
remind students why they’re there. With a
waiting list to enroll, many operators hold a
lottery to determine who gets in.
But in Memphis, residents often are wary of names such as KIPP, Aspire and YES Prep —
sometimes even staging protests when a charter organization is given authority to begin
taking over a school that previously was operated by their local district. For charter leaders,
it’s difficult to tell if parents are slow to embrace them because of their personal
experiences, the community’s high mobility rate, academic reputation or access to the
schools.
At Aspire Coleman Elementary School in the Memphis suburb of Raleigh, principal Owen
Ricciardi dressed in purple and stood outside the school for months before its opening,
talking to parents about Aspire and responding to questions and concerns about the charter
network.
Such sales pitches are necessary. If charter schools don’t hit their enrollment targets,
administrators must shrink their budget and cut staff crucial to programming.
“That bit of predictability is a big deal,” said Shaka Mitchell, Tennessee’s regional director
for Rocketship, which has been approved to open several schools in the ASD but has held
back under the current enrollment policy. “As a school administrator, we need to know how
many students to expect so we can . . . know what sort of enrichment we’re providing. If we
don’t have an accurate prediction, we have to trim back programming and that makes
certain things impossible,” Mitchell said.
Beyond YES Prep’s ‘No’
While ASD schools are far from full, the ASD’s Smalley calls the gap between actual and
projected enrollments “nuanced.” He urges patience as the ASD and its charters work to
improve the quality of schools, win parents back and build enrollment. “With most of our
schools in their first or second year of operation, now isn’t the time to be making major
assumptions or drawing big conclusions,” he adds.
Meanwhile at Airways Middle School — once viewed as YES Prep’s future anchor to build
its charter network in Memphis — educators and students are winding down the school year
as district officials prepare to shutter its doors for good in June. Next school year, Airways
students will be moved to Sherwood Middle, an iZone school.
While enrollment was a major sticking point for YES Prep, network leaders noted that
Memphis parents also have more quality options now than in 2013 when YES Prep
received state authorization to set up shop in the city. In addition, while YES Prep had
planned to phase in its operations at Airways one grade at a time, Hopson announced last
November that Shelby County Schools no longer would support the co-location model, in
which the district scales back a school’s traditional operations while a charter grows and
gradually takes over the building.
“With no clear path to meeting student enrollment needs and low probability of future school
matching with phase-in program model, we will not be able to deliver on the vision we
outlined for opening a region of schools in Memphis,” Durbin told YES Prep’s board. “Even
with additional philanthropic support, we do not see a path to YES Prep-level student
achievement results based on student-generated revenue.”
The departure was a significant blow to the ASD. But Barbic remains adamant that the
state-run district is steadily continuing its mission with existing charters, several of which, he
says, are closing in on projected enrollment numbers, while student mobility rates are
showing a slight improvement as well.
“Not everyone,” he says matter-of-factly of YES Prep, “is cut out for this work.”
Data source: Achievement School District
Credits: Sarah Glen/Chalkbeat