Memphis Lags in School Innovations A look at public education ideas that are cropping up around the country. by JOHN BRANSTON Lots of talk about change in public education, but not so much action. That's the story this year in city after city, Memphis included. As Memphis searches for a new superintendent for the 118,000-student Memphis City Schools system, Shelby County government struggles to fund school construction, and support groups try to attract qualified school board candidates, other cities are pressing ahead with more fundamental changes. Here's a spot survey of what's making news on the education beat in other areas. · Mandatory summer school. In Detroit, about 30,000 students are in summer school because they didn't maintain a C average in core classes, didn't score high enough on standardized tests, or had too many unexcused absences. If they haven't improved by the end of summer, they will repeat a grade. The policy, new this year, applies to second-, third-, fifth-, and eighth-graders. New Orleans doesn't require failing students to go to summer school, but the students won't be promoted unless they pass a retest. As many as half of fourth- and eighth-graders were expected to attend summer school. In Memphis, under a new policy adopted in March, the only students required to attend summer school are elementary students who have more than 15 unexcused absences. There are about 650 such students this summer, but the number could be much larger next year because only absences after the March start-up date were counted this year. In all, nearly 30,000 students are attending summer school in some form or another, according to Betty Hurt, director of extended learning for MCS. "Most of our programs are aimed at prevention or intervention rather than trying to make up for failure," she says. · Sanctions for failing schools. In Baltimore, 87 of the 182 schools in the district have been declared "reconstitution eligible," meaning they scored so poorly on standardized tests that they can be taken over by the state if they don't improve within five years. Earlier this year, Maryland took over three schools and contracted with Edison Schools, Inc., a publicly-traded school management firm, to run them. Memphis and Shelby County do not identify failing schools as such, although standardized test scores are one indication. TCAP scores, however, are late this year for the second year in a row and won't be available until August, after students have already chosen their schools. A proposal to assign something more specific such as a letter grade for each school is under consideration but probably at least a year from adoption. · Change starting times. In Washington D.C., classes start at 8:45 a.m., more than an hour later than many Memphis City Schools. A proposal is under consideration that would have elementary students start at 8 a.m. and all other grades at 9:15 a.m. so that older students can get more sleep. Memphis students are in class before their Washington D.C. counterparts are even out of bed. Most high schools start at 7:30 a.m., meaning students are up by 6 a.m. or earlier if they have to commute. Middle schools start at 7:30 a.m. or 8:30 a.m., depending on the busing schedule. Early starting times are a sore spot with City Councilman John Vergos among others. "We always hear about the children this and the children that, but here we're talking about something as basic as letting children get a good night's sleep," he says. "They put a goodly number of them out on the street as early as 5:45 a.m. to get their transportation, then unload them as early at 2:30 p.m. to an unsupervised home to do nothing or hang out on the streets." · Appointed school board members. Washington D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams advocates a plan that would allow him to name four members while four others are elected from districts and a president is elected citywide. At present the board has 11 elected members. D.C. residents voted in a referendum two weeks ago, but absentee ballots were still being counted late last week and the results were too close to call. Only about 11 percent of registered voters in the district voted. Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton has proposed a five-member appointed school board and an appointed School Building Authority, but the idea has not gotten past the talking stage. · Charter schools. Charter schools are publicly-funded schools that operate outside of the local bureaucracy under parent control. They are not legal in Tennessee, but in neighboring Arkansas, Gov. Mike Huckabee signed legislation in 1999 that would allow as many as 12 of them. In practice, proponents have run afoul of state regulations and local school boards in one well-publicized case in Osceola. In Memphis, proponents of charter schools are scheduled to make their case later this month at a meeting of County Commissioner Buck Wellford's ad-hoc committee on school funding and reform. · Fighting white flight. Vicksburg, Mississippi, like most Southern school districts, was largely segregated when Superintendent Robert Pickett, now retired, designed a plan to improve the schools and bring back white students. The consolidated Vicksburg-Warren County School District is about 40 percent white and 60 percent black. The desegregation effort was successful enough to be profiled in a two-page story in Time magazine last week. Parents take their pick of three schools closest to their home, but the district does some racial balancing for diversity. Such feel-good stories are rare. Forty miles east of Vicksburg, Jackson is where the first chapter of Parents for Public Schools was founded in 1989. One of its goals was recruiting students to public schools, and the group received considerable national media attention that led to the formation of over 50 chapters in 22 states. But white enrollment in the Jackson public schools, which was over 20 percent in 1989, has fallen below 9 percent, according to Jane Beach, one of the founding members of the Jackson Parents for Public Schools chapter. Memphis City Schools is about 14 percent white, compared to a city population that is about 42 percent white. The Shelby County school system is roughly a mirror image of the city system. Partners in Public Education, a support group of influential Memphians, has not made white flight an issue in its campaign for better schools. A Memphis chapter of Parents for Public Schools was founded last year and is trying to build its membership. ·