Superintendent wants to make big changes to district culture

Ray seeks to close achievement gap for black male students with support of community as a whole

In the face of a significant achievement gap between African-american male students and the rest of the Shelby County Schools population, the district is planning to usher in a series of changes, including around teacher recruitment and school discipline, to focus more on supporting African-american male students in the district.

According to SCS Superintendent Joris Ray, African-american male students are more likely to come from a low-income household, less likely to graduate, have lower attendance rates and earn lower ACT scores than the district average. Ray said changes would start taking place across the district in the next year, including increased recruiting of African-american male teachers and creating an equity office.

“This is not going to be a one-anddone thing,” he said in an interview with the Commercial Appeal. “This is going to almost be a district changer or a lifestyle change for Shelby County Schools.” Joris Ray

“If we lift this priority group, we lift the entire district. We lift the entire school district, we’re gonna change the face of Memphis and Shelby County.”

More of a culture change within the district than an initiative, Ray said success would require buy-in not just from the Shelby County education community, but from public officials, law enforcement, parents, students, faith-based organizations and the community as a whole.

“This is something that is going to be embedded in our school district for years to come. This is not an initiative or something we’re doing right now,” he said, adding that he hoped the changes to SCS would lead to empowering future generations of African-american students.

Identifying educational barriers

Ray said he wanted to bring more attention to the issues faced by young African-american men in Shelby County and the educational barriers they face, examine the district’s own methods to ensure SCS policies aren’t contributing to the entrenched achievement gap and focus on professional development for teachers, including training to recognize unconscious bias and students who had suffered adverse childhood experiences.

Michael Lowe, currently the director of school leadership for the district who will head the equity office when it opens in fall 2020, said among practical changes that would be made, part of the culture shift at SCS would be to show young African-american men other opportunities that exist for them and letting them know that support and resources do exist for them in the district.

“For so long, they have fallen through the cracks,” he said. “They’re over half our population and so as they go, so goes our district. A rising tide lifts all boats.”

The district has implemented numerous programs over the years to identify struggling students and work to close achievement gaps at earlier ages. The district board of education approved a $2 million, three-year contract last year to implement a new software system to identify students falling behind in schools and track what programs do or don’t help them.

In March, the district announced a new policy to stop “social promotion,” the practice of sending kids on to the next grade level even if they aren’t ready, in the hopes of curbing problems with student literacy and closing achievement gaps.

The policy, which could see more students held back in second grade if they struggle to read, will be implemented on a trial basis this school year with full implementation possible next fall. It’s not clear how many students could be held back under the new system, but almost 75% of third-grade students are currently reading below their grade level, according to Tnready testing, one of several methods that will be used to decide whether children will be promoted from second to third grade.

MARK WEBER/THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL

Recruiting African-american teachers

Lowe said the impending changes at SCS weren’t just a rehashing of old policies. The district is committed to reducing suspensions 10% each year over the next few years and wants to focus more on student mental health, Lowe said. He added SCS was working with the University of Memphis to identify Africanamerican men who were interested in becoming educators.

“We already have about 15 young men entering the University of Memphis this year with the promise to come back to Shelby County Schools and teach when they graduate,” he said.

A 2018 study by Johns Hopkins University showed African-american students who have an African-american teacher by third grade were 13% more likely to enroll in college. Those who have two were 32% more likely to enroll. The same researchers had also found that having at least one African-american teacher by in elementary school meant “very low-income black boys” were 39% less likely to drop out of school.

The superintendent said news reports of young African-american men in Memphis —including current and former SCS students — committing crimes or becoming victims of crimes was a large factor in his push for a culture change.

“It just tore me apart,” Ray said. “I was driving to work and I started to just weep and think about the plight of these young men. And as superintendent, you know, it’s very easy to start pointing fingers at everybody else. However, I had to look at what we were doing to contribute to society.”

He dove more deeply into district data about the achievement gap between African-american male students and the rest of the district and found that they had the lowest ACT scores and rates of achievement gain, were less likely to graduate and more likely to drop out, be suspended or expelled than the district average. Over the next several years, the district will examine those same statistics to see if the

Community partners

At a press conference at the National Civil Rights Museum on Monday morning, Ray and Lowe unveiled the empowerment plan surrounded by local partners including Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, members of the county commission and SCS board and Memphis Tigers basketball coach Penny Hardaway.

Ray said the futures of Africanamerican men in SCS schools were “in peril” and that the current achievement gap, years in the making, was unacceptable moving forward.

“We cannot and will not allow African-american males to languish in the midst of antiquated, systemic practices that do not take into account the very real challenges that deeply and directly affect them every day,” he said.

In addition to establishing an equity office, recruiting African-american educators and providing professional development opportunities for teachers, SCS will consult with an equity advisory committee of community partners, work to expose more young black men to rigorous coursework, build on restorative practices and build mentorship networks based on ZIP code.

Lowe asked the community for patience saying it had taken years for the current achievement gap to develop and it would take years to rectify it. He stressed that the impending changes were not an “episode,” but a realignment of priorities, “making sure we’re looking at the brilliance of black boys.”

The superintendent thanked community partners at the press conference but said the district would need support — socially and financially — from all sectors of the community. He encouraged anyone who wanted to support SCS to become a tutor, mentor or volunteer.

“Now is the time,” Ray said. “Now is the time. We can’t wait. We can’t afford to wait.”