Local Education, Memphis Brandon Paykamian Local Education, Memphis Brandon Paykamian

Memphis-Shelby County Schools recommends denial for three proposed public charter schools

Three proposed new public charter schools in Memphis may have a challenging road finding approval from school board members next week.Tuesday night the Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ (MSCS) charter review team recommended a denial for all three including Blueprint College and Career Prep, Journey Northeast Academy, and the Memphis Grizzlies Prep STEAM School for Girls.Board members are scheduled to vote on each application at its meeting next Tuesday.

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Local Education, Nashville Reana Gibson Local Education, Nashville Reana Gibson

LEAD Public Schools proposes creating K-12 school pipelines with two new elementary schools

LEAD runs six public charter schools in Nashville, including four in the Metro-Nashville Public School district serving families in South Nashville and Antioch. What the charter operator believes it’s lacking though, are elementary schools to feed students into those existing middle and high schools.

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Local Education, Memphis Brandon Paykamian Local Education, Memphis Brandon Paykamian

Independent review finds proposed Memphis Grizzlies affiliated public charter school a slam dunk

For more than a decade the Memphis Grizzlies Preparatory Charter School has provided middle-school aged boys with a science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) focused education in Memphis and last year school leaders proposed creating a similar school for girls.The Memphis-Shelby County School Board denied that application in 2023 but the proposal is back with some changes to address the concerns board members had.

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Local Education, Memphis Brandon Paykamian Local Education, Memphis Brandon Paykamian

Independent review recommends approval for proposed public charter school looking to close the gap for economically disadvantaged Memphis students

As the job market in the greater Memphis area continues to expand, more schools that focus on career and technical education (CTE) and college prep will be in demand. This is especially true for low-income neighborhoods where students face barriers entering the workforce.It’s one reason why the founders of Blueprint College and Career Prep (BCCP) chose the Southeast Memphis communities of Oakhaven and Parkway Village as the location for their proposed public charter school. They say families there want a high-quality public education option that addresses each community’s needs.

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School districts received nine applications for new public charter schools. A new tool puts each under the microscope.

This year nine potential charter operators met the February 1 deadline to file an application to open a new public charter school.School board members in Memphis, Nashville, and Rutherford County will vote on those applications later this spring, and any parents who are interested in them now have access to an independent evaluation of the proposed schools.Education advocacy organization Tennesseans for Student Success (TSS) launched this year’s edition of the Quality Charter Review on Monday with an evaluation of each application’s academic, operations, and financial plans. The review also provides an outline of each proposed school's strengths and needed improvements.

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Local Education, Memphis Sky Arnold Local Education, Memphis Sky Arnold

Memphis-Shelby County Board denies proposed public charter school that meets state standards but leaves door open for one that doesn’t

A short-handed Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) Board of Education chose an unexpected path in the public charter school approval process Tuesday night. With several members absent, the board voted to support a proposed public charter school that failed to pass multiple reviews while denying others the district itself rated higher.

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Local Education, Nashville Sky Arnold Local Education, Nashville Sky Arnold

Proposed public charter school aims to bring two teacher classroom approach to East Davidson County

The McGavock Cluster in Donelson and Hermitage serves close to ten percent of the Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) student population and houses the largest high school in Middle Tennessee.Despite the diverse population, leaders of the proposed public charter school Invictus Nashville say enrollment data shows many students leave the area to attend middle and high school elsewhere.It’s among the reasons they’ve chosen that section of eastern Davidson County to provide an alternative education model that includes two teachers per classroom.

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Local Education, Memphis Sky Arnold Local Education, Memphis Sky Arnold

Independent review finds proposed “male-only” public charter school in Memphis lacks evidence its single gender model works

Memphis based TGAND Outreach Ministries envisions its CHANGE Academy as a new type of public charter school that focuses on the needs of male students with a vocational and financial literacy-based curriculum.The Quality Charter Review (QCR) found the proposed school does not meet state standards for its operations, financial, and academic plan.  In particular, the review found the all-male structure of the school questionable.

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