According to a new study by the Thomas Fordham Institute, Memphis has been ranked the second most impactful school district in the country with “remarkably effective” schools despite the high poverty level. As the largest school district in the Memphis metro area, SCS has made a significant impact in this report.

Key Takeaways

Memphis metro school district’s ranked the following in various subgroups and cohorts:

• #1 in academic growth of black, hispanic and economically disadvantaged students
• #2 urban district in America for overall academic growth, academic growth for traditionally disadvantaged students, improvement in achievement in recent years, and high school graduation rates
• #3 metro improvement in academic achievement in recent years
• #4 academic growth

“It is especially encouraging to be recognized among the nation’s top effective educational systems as we strive to reimagine education,” said Superintendent Dr. Joris M. Ray. “These results are driven by the commitment of our employees who work tirelessly to support academic achievement on every level, with the goal of providing a promising future for our students and communities.”

Data Used

The Fordham Institute utilized two principal data sources covering public school students, including those who attend charter schools: the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA) version 4.0 and the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate data from the U.S. Department of Education’s EdFacts data collection.  However, Fordham states its summary of the data was aggregated  in the following methods:

• at the metro level
• restricted to the most recent years of data (2016–18)
• include some additional demographic controls, as well as additional metrics, such as growth for disadvantaged groups and high school graduation rate

According to the Fordham Institute, here is more context about why the metrics used in the report are different than what people have typically used before:

1. Most district comparisons heavily favor “status measures”—snapshots of performance—are so closely related to the demographic makeup of individual schools and districts. It’s why, for so long, communities have boasted about “great public schools”— which are in reality defined as “schools populated by the children of highly educated parents.”
2. “But, that’s a lousy definition of school quality because it doesn’t consider whether schools are actually effective at helping students learn. It allows the schools in upper-middle-class suburbs to rest on their laurels, while hiding the amazing work done at many high-poverty schools, whose students start out way behind but make remarkable progress…”

Click here to read the report in full.