To assist with teacher and student absences, please review processes at your site: 

• If it is a planned absence, the teacher must provide specific work for that day for the substitute teacher aligned to the curriculum map/pacing guide/prescription.
• For unplanned absences, a substitute folder must be updated quarterly with work aligned to the curriculum map/pacing guide/prescription for the current quarter. Teachers should have a subfolder with at least five workdays for unplanned absences.
• For student absences, students are allowed to make up work regardless of an excused or unexcused absence. Please review Policy 6014 (link).

Congratulations to these top five schools who are currently Rock N’ Enrollment! As of January 31, the following schools are among the top five in the district with the highest percentage of students registered for the 2022-2023 school year.  

You are on your way to achieving the Superintendent’s goal of 98% of all returning students registered by the end of this school year.

It has come to our attention that illegal substances that contain cannabis and THC (illegal substances within marijuana) are now being explicitly manufactured to capture the attention and entice our younger populations. Packages are beginning to take on the appearance of fruit candies and other snack flavors that are nearly identical to regular snack packages. It is now more critical than ever before that administrators take proactive strategies to alert our students and parents to the detrimental effects, discipline penalties, and existence of these camouflaged illegal substances. 

 Proactive strategies from school administrators are not limited to but may include:

• Intercom Announcement reminders
• Student assemblies
• Memos to parents and students

Please see the images to familiarize yourself and the school population with this new trend. The use, possession, and distribution of drugs remain a state-mandated 180-day suspension offense.

Contact SEED at 901-416-6007 if you need further discipline guidance. 

Let's celebrate the137 schools attaining 'On-Track' for RTI2 SOAR Cycle #2. These schools are highlighted in the SOAR Cycle #2 Awards Presentation. RTI2 Leads for these schools were also presented with a recognition certificate. 

Are you keeping up with the latest RTI2 updates and reminders? Take a moment to review the February 16 publication of the RTI2 Lead Update. Please continue to share with all intervention providers, so they stay abreast of this relevant information.

i-Ready Incentive Campaign: The 3rd annual incentive campaign is up and running! Reminder on how it works below, along with some NEW additions: 

•  Goal: Memphis-Shelby County Schools would like to recognize the top-performing zone, schools, TEACHERS, and students for meeting district goals 
•  Data is collected monthly via i-Ready around online instructional usage, with results announced March-May 2022. 
• Students who show consistently strong usage will be entered into a drawing for end of year bicycle (with helmet) giveaway! 
• School usage of the Teacher Toolbox will now be included in the winning formula each month! 
• Teachers who are nominated as exemplary for implementation of Ready Print will also be recognized, and entered into a grand-prize drawing for the end of the year! 

Curious about best practices for implementing Ready Print to support the work of the grade? Two things to check out: 

• Ready Central for math support: https://math.readycentral.com/ 
•  Math and Reading Program Implementation tips within the Toolbox: Log into i-Ready > Click Assess & Teach > Click into Teacher Toolbox > Click Program Implementation toward the upper left corner

Launched in 1998 by the National Education Association (NEA), NEA’s Read Across America is the nation’s largest celebration of reading. NEA's Read Across America is a reading motivation and awareness program that focuses on "Celebrating a Nation of Diverse Readers" year-round and culminates with a call for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2. Library Services encourages all schools to celebrate the joy of reading on March 2. Each month NEA promotes a celebratory theme. The theme for March is playing with stories. March’s theme helps to promote and inspire readers with all kinds of stories, the art of storytelling, and authors and poets who tell stories well. NEA shares a variety of ways to celebrate Read Across America here. 

As the District prepares for celebrating Read Across America, the College of Education at the University of Memphis is interested in supporting the District’s goal of promoting and improving reading proficiency and growth across the District. The University of Memphis would like to volunteer its time to help increase student achievement by supporting schools by guest reading in-person or virtually or volunteering with events during reading Across America. If you would like a volunteer from the University of Memphis, please contact education@memphis.edu or fill out a survey to be contacted by the University of Memphis College of Education staff.

Library Services U of M Read Across America Volunteers

Wonders Kindergarten Reading / Writing Companions were ordered based on teacher-student ratios. Wonders textbooks for grades 1-5 were ordered based on your enrollment. 

Textbook Coordinators, if your enrollment has increased and you need additional textbooks for students in grades 1-5 or Reading Writing Companion Workbooks for Kindergarten students, contact Meryl Isabel at 416-5870. 

The Tom Lee Poetry and Spoken Word Prize contest is a new opportunity for SCS secondary teachers and students. A direct mailing of posters and flyers for the poetry contest will be sent to HS English Department Heads. These mailings of poetry resources will begin to arrive in all SCS high schools starting the week of February 14. Participating high school students and teachers are eligible to win prizes. The Tom Lee Poetry and Spoken Word Prize is sponsored by Memphis River Parks Partnership and the Mellon Foundation. 

Questions? Email ci_ela_team@scsk12.org.

Memphis Soul Prize is back for 2022! 

The Memphis Soul Prize is our city-wide poetry competition for high school students aimed at uniting our hearts, celebrating our artists, and elevating our city! The Memphis Soul Prize includes school prizes, teacher prizes, and of course, student prizes! 

Last year, more than $25,000 in scholarships were awarded, and we want you to gear up and build the excitement amongst your students to make this another riveting competition for high school scholars across the city! Are you in? 

If so, next Tuesday, February 22, 3:30 p.m., Creation Studios will be hosting a virtual Interest Meeting via Zoom, and we want to make sure that you encourage your ELA teachers to be present to hear all the amazing details. 

Click on this link to let us know if you'll be putting your school on the map for another exciting year of The Memphis Soul Prize! 

WIDA ACCESS and ALT ACCESS Assessments

• The WIDA Access testing window is now open.
• Testing Schedules and packing slips were due to ESL Instructional Advisors on February 11. We ask that any school that has not yet received their WIDA ACCESS Materials reach out to their ESL Instructional Advisor.
• If your school does not have a dedicated ESL Teacher, the ESL Department is working in collaboration with your BTC or designee to ensure that all WIDA ACCESS and ALT ACCESS tests are administered within the testing window. Please be on the lookout for information from your Instructional Advisor regarding testing.    

Retention Prevention Documentation   

As a reminder, evidence uploads for ELs who received a Q2 failing grade for the courses listed below were due in ELLevation on January 21. For each student, the teacher who assigned the failing grade must provide three items electronically to the ESL teacher to document that appropriate language scaffolds and accommodations were provided to the student per their ILP. The ESL teacher will upload the evidence received and add relevant notes. For students who have failed one of the courses below for Quarter 1 and Quarter 2, or who failed S1, a retention prevention meeting should have been scheduled to take place before February 18. This meeting can be held virtually or in person.      

•  K-5 – ELA, ESL, & Math   
• 6-8 – ELA, ESL, Math, Science, & Social Studies   
• 9-12 – Any course 

Since October of this school year, we have been dedicated to hiring and training 51 new BSS staff in small cohorts. The expansion is allowing us to reduce caseloads from 5-6 schools down to 1 or 2 schools in most cases. In rare cases, a BSS may cover 3 schools.

Some changes in school assignments occurred in the fall but additional changes are now occurring as we wrap up our final training placements. We have shared that changes would occur in our messaging since last fall. We are currently bringing new hires to schools to introduce them to appropriate staff including the principal if available.

We are sensitive to the impact that these unavoidable transitions may cause. I hope with patience we all will see a greatly expanded BSS coverage that helps you build positive school environments to benefit student and staff experiences.

Note: These changes do not impact schools that have an active BSS PCN in the school budget and are not served by our office.

If you have any questions please send them to Dr. Randy McPherson Mcphersonra@scsk12.org

Specialized Education Assistants (SEAs) will report to their assigned schools on Monday, February 21, 8:30 a.m.- 3:30 p.m. SEAs are expected to complete self-paced, asynchronous professional learning assignments provided by the Early Literacy Department. SEAs should register in PLZ, using course #30032. The assignments are accessed directly using this link.

Please note that the professional learning assignments will not be accessible until February 21, 8 a.m.  The assignments are divided into three parts. All three parts of the assignments and the end-of-session assessment must be completed by February 21, 4 p.m.

All newly hired attendance staff (GOSs, Attendance administrators, receptionists, etc.) who are responsible for reconciling attendance should make every attempt to attend the SEED PowerSchool Attendance Trainings that are listed in PLZ. In addition to these ongoing supports, SEED will provide individualized PowerSchool Attendance one-on-one sessions specifically for newly hired staff who were onboarded after January 1. New hires should email Cheryl Leger (Attendance & Discipline Advisor) at LEGERC@scsk12.org to schedule one-on-one sessions if needed. These sessions are deliberately being held in person and away from the school, to allow for uninterrupted training time.

SESSION DAYS: Tuesdays & Wednesdays

• February 22 (Tuesday)
• February 23 (Wednesday)
• March 1 (Tuesday)
• March 2 (Wednesday)

TIME: 9 a.m.- 3 p.m. (hourly slots per individual)

Employees can also visit the SEED SharePoint Attendance Matters Folder to utilize other materials and to view available pre-recorded training sessions.

Thank you for attending the first two Instructional Practice 3 sessions with Chief Carson.  

A link to the OneDrive folder to access the presentation, facilitator guide, and IP3 norming lesson video is below. There are session materials for the You Do in Pairs and You Do Independently phases of gradual release using the norming video that we discussed during December, January, and February LDW sessions. The expectation is for school admin teams to redeliver the Instructional Practice 3 content to their building faculty by March 11.  

The expectation is that school admin or zone level supports redeliver this content to your teachers.  If your school admin or zone team does not have the capacity to redeliver this content, please complete this form for support from Professional Learning and Support. 

Please download all materials before editing. IP3 for Leaders Session Materials

The Midsouth Leadership Symposium Call for Proposals is OPEN. Check out the full details here!

Our next District Learning Day will be held on February 21 at various locations throughout the district.  Please review the February 2022 DLD Guidebook for locations, sessions, and registration information. Please ask teachers to bring a fully charged device as they will need it to engage in the learning fully.

March Leadership Development Week is scheduled for March 7-11.  

Educational Epiphany continues to support our district with our understanding and implementation of the four instructional practices. During a recent session, Educational Epiphany presented to the Academic Office using a model lesson with a focus on Instructional Practices 3 and 4. Please see this video recording of that same session as you continue to further refine your understanding of the Instructional Practices and language that accompanies them. 

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The Memphis-Shelby County Schools Operations Institute is June 21-22.

The Midsouth Leadership Symposium June 14-16.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools' Office of Leadership would like to share a leader development opportunity with you. If you are interested in becoming a leader, please attend one of the upcoming sessions. Please share with other educators within and outside of the district. Please RSVP here. 

Details are in the flyer and make sure to view this video.

Join us Wednesday, February 23 via Microsoft Teams at 4:00 p.m. Dr. Yvette Renfroe will share a lesson in leadership, "When Challenge Escalates, Teamwork Elevates."  

This virtual session is open to all school leaders, ILT Content Leads, and PLC Coaches who want to sharpen their instructional lens.  
 

TDOE has set forth a goal of engaging 5,000 1st-3rd grade students with this free resource. I am asking for your continued support of the BookNook literacy endeavor. Many students are participating in their at-home sessions, but many are failing to attend. I kindly request you encourage low attendance students to begin attending their assigned sessions (each Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday). 

Also, I encourage you to identify students who would benefit from this tutoring and extend a personal invitation to the family to register for the program. Registration opens TODAY. The next cohort begins in after Spring Break (March 21).

Click here to register.