The Commercial Appeal

New ASD leader brings insight, inspiratio­n to tough gig

- Tonyaa Weathersbe­e USA TODAY NETWORK – TENN.

The question shouldn’t be why Sharon Griffin was selected to lead the Achievemen­t School District.

The question should be why someone like her wasn’t leading it in the first place.

Created in 2012 after Tennessee won a Race to the Top grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the special, state-run district has used mostly charter schools in an effort to catapult its 12,000 students – 11,000 of whom live in Memphis – from the bottom 5 percent of achievers to the top 25 percent.

Problem is, things haven’t worked out that way.

The ASD has been plagued with charter school closures, low enrollment­s, funding and staffing cuts. Many of the schools still languish in the bottom 5 percent, and one of the only things the district has managed to achieve is to burn through two previous leaders who lived in Nashville.

But Griffin has two traits that benefit her statewide role as assistant commission­er of school turnaround and chief of the ASD. Results. And roots.

Results – as in when she was regional superinten­dent of Shelby County Schools’ Innovation Zone, or iZone, the students in those schools posted academic gains greater than those of students in ASD schools. Those gains were illuminate­d in a Vanderbilt University study.

Roots – as in Griffin, who has 11 siblings, attended Hamilton High in Memphis, LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis, and the University of Memphis. With her cloud of white-blond hair and heels that boost her skyward, a conversati­on with students might begin with where she bought her shoes and end with what happened in the neighborho­od that weekend – without them having to tell the location of the neighborho­od. And that’s good. That’s good because it means Griffin is less likely to view the students grappling to overcome academic disadvanta­ges as pawns in a game of wild experiment­ation. Instead, they remind her of her own classmates, or her sisters or brothers – youths who know they can succeed, but whose confidence and head start in life was stunted by poverty and other obstacles.

It means that, even though Griffin will be responsibl­e for moving schools throughout the state from the bottom 5 percent, her experience­s in Memphis uniquely tailor her to deal with the underlying problems of poverty and social isolation that hinder students in using education to propel them out of it.

So, it’s about time someone like Griffin was picked. Still, some of this is infuriatin­g.

Intentiona­lly or not, the fact that it took the state this long to find someone from Memphis to lead an initiative dominated by Memphis students smacks of elitism. It bolsters the notion that people in struggling communitie­s have no agency and are incapable of shaping their destinies.

As the recent meetings in Frayser show, that notion fuels more resentment than cooperatio­n.

What’s also bothersome is a need for achievemen­t districts and innovation schools in the first place.

Most students in struggling schools aren’t struggling because they lack intellect, but because they and their parents lack the resources and social capital that bolsters students in affluent, high-achieving schools.

It’s obvious that resources make a difference – because the iZone has used state and philanthro­pic dollars to recruit top teachers and lengthen the school day to boost student achievemen­t. And it’s working. So, it’s good that Griffin will lead the ASD – because most of its students are in Memphis schools.

Schools that she knows – with students that know her.

 ?? Columnist Memphis Commercial Appeal ??
Columnist Memphis Commercial Appeal

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