Families who live in the Sycamore View community in Northeast Memphis don’t have easy access to a public elementary or middle school. The two closest public schools are currently overenrolled, forcing students to either take a long bus ride or their parents to drive them outside of Sycamore View.
It’s one of the reasons why Journey Community Schools chose Sycamore View for a proposed new public charter school. If approved by the Memphis-Shelby County School Board, Journey Northeast Academy would eventually serve more than 500 kindergarten through eighth graders with a similar education model that’s in place at one of the organization’s other schools.
Journey Community Schools also runs the East Academy elementary school in Memphis and leaders plan to align the proposed new school with the same focus on academic excellence and providing students with a sense of belonging.
“As the name of our network of schools indicates, Journey Community Schools firmly believes that every community is entitled to have its own community-based schools. Given the academic success of East Academy, we are well-positioned to provide a high-quality public-school option to the families of Sycamore View to meet the educational needs of students,” wrote Journey Community Schools in its application.
Leaders envision the new school serving a predominately black and economically disadvantaged population of students with a “laser focus” on literacy to close achievement gaps. Journey Community Schools says that approach has found success at East Academy where student performance on state testing in English language arts grew more than 21 percent and 26 percent in math last school year.
“We are seeking to replicate the academic, operational, and financial model of East Academy, including our laser focus on literacy,” wrote Journey Community Schools. “Given that our laser focus on literacy has successfully closed (and will continue to close) achievement gaps at East Academy, we are confident our academic plan will also successfully close achievement gaps at our proposed school.
Journey Northeast Academy is one of three proposed public charter schools applying to open in Memphis this year. School board members will be voting on all three later this month and the independent Quality Charter Review (QCR) is recommending approval.
QCR reviewers praised Journey Community School’s plan to use a successful model from its network and its use of literacy to close the achievement gap. Additionally, reviewers praised the emphasis on creating an inclusive, rigorous, and innovative education with a safe, positive, and joyous learning environment along with a thorough plan for students learning English as a second language.
“The school will focus on creating a positive learning environment with a sense of belonging. Structures including Orientation, Culture Weeks, Family Meetings, and Acts of Recognition will be used to support the student culture. Overall, the application outlines an academic plan that is based on a successful model with an emphasis on literacy and strong school culture,” wrote QCR reviewers.
While reviewers also found the network is well-equipped to replicate its model, they did provide a few recommendations to improve the application including providing the school district with letters of support for the new school from parents and improving its transportation plan.
The Quality Charter Review and Tennessee Firefly are unaffiliated projects of Tennesseans for Student Success.
