Shelby County Schools calls for halt to ASD takeovers
Shelby County Schools Superintendent Dorsey Hopson (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal)
Shelby County Schools is formally pushing back against the state-run Achievement School District, which announced last week it will take over four more schools in Memphis.
The school board on Tuesday night unanimously passed a resolution approving a "short-term strategic plan" that includes a moratorium on ASD officials taking over any more schools "until they show consistent progress in improving student academic achievement."
Board members brought the resolution to the meeting as a last-minute addition, but Superintendent Dorsey Hopson said he supports the idea.
"When I increasingly hear from communities that the process isn't fair or that the kids aren't being served, or they don't want to be a part of the ASD, it brings me great pause," Hopson said.
Backed by a Vanderbilt University study released last week, Hopson said the evidence is "overwhelming" that the SCS Innovation Zone, which keeps schools in the local district with extra funding, is a more effective turnaround model than the ASD.
The ASD has authority, per state law, to take over schools in the bottom 5 percent in the state and either run them directly or outsource their operation to Shelby County Schools calls for halt to ASD takeovers:
