Memphis charter students are bucking district math trends. Here’s what’s guiding their growth.

“Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools. In examining post-pandemic learning loss, officials at Leadership Preparatory Charter School came to a realization: Teachers were following scripted math curriculum a bit too closely. “We were expecting teachers to make changes” to cater to students’ needs, said Valissia Allen, founder of the Southeast Memphis K-8 school. “But they were scared.” So in 2022, the school partnered with national organization Teach Like A Champion to adapt scripted state-approved curriculum. Now, the school provides more flexibility in teaching and plugs material into a structured schedule, starting with a “do now” activity and rote review exercises. Allen calls it “teacher autonomy with guardrails.” Leadership Prep is seeing booming results. Last year, nearly 44% of students scored as proficient on state standardized math tests – up over 20 percentage points from 2021, school leaders said. That’s more than double last year’s district-wide average for math proficiency. The uptick mirrors growth in math performance in charter schools across Memphis. A Chalkbeat analysis found that charter students are bouncing back from pandemic-era math losses faster than their traditional school peers and are now outperforming them on state tests. Nearly one-quarter of Memphis charter students scored proficient in math on last year’s Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program – up from 2% in 2021, a year after the pandemic struck. That big leap lifted charter math proficiency above pre-pandemic levels. Traditional school students recovered, as well, but not as quickly: Just under 22% of traditional public school students passed the math TCAP last year, up from 6.9% in 2021. That lagged behind traditional schools students’ pre-pandemic math proficiency. Memphis-Shelby County Schools did not respond to a request for comment about Chalkbeat’s findings. That data is backed up by a new report from Tennessee education nonprofit SCORE , where staff spent the past year visiting local charters that showed significant growth on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, or TCAP. “Their growth was the equivalent of if they had had 47 more days of learning in a year,” said Emma McWeeney, SCORE’s senior director of charter initiatives. These trends carry weight on the eve of a state takeover of MSCS. Nashville Republicans cite years of academic underperformance in the district as justification for taking away local control of education decisions , including charter authorization. House Speaker Cameron Sexton appointed SCORE CEO David Mansouri to the impending state oversight board last week. Mansouri will now have a direct hand in shaping critical levers like MSCS curriculum and staffing. Experts also say that state takeovers of school districts often lead to the expansion of charter options in the area. SCORE’s report, which included analysis of state-run charters alongside MSCS charters, revealed consistent practices that boosted charter math performance, including daily data analysis and teacher training. But McWeeney said the key driver of success was development of a “school-wide vision” for how math lessons should be run across all grade levels. “We walked into a kindergarten classroom, a fourth grade classroom, an eighth grade classroom, they were doing very different math skills, but there was a consistent flow and model,” she said. Teaching with guardrails: The Leadership Prep math model Corliss James, a former Leadership Prep teacher who is now a principal at the school, said the flexibility to alter state-approved curriculum helps teachers prepare students more directly for TCAP. “With the scripted curriculum, some of the questions weren’t as rigorous,” she said. “And then when we would see the state test, they weren’t aligned even though they were saying they were.” Most curricula also focused too heavily on “conceptual” math that explains why certain equations are used instead of the procedural skills necessary for a timed standardized test, Allen added. A typical math class at Leadership Prep looks like this: Students start with a short quiz, then move into timed basic equations like multiplication. Teachers then review relevant vocabulary for the day’s lesson, and walk through errors from the previous day’s assignments. Then, they employ classic “gradual release” techniques for new problems: teachers solve an equation, then the class solves one together, and then students complete one on their own. And each class period ends with a short quiz reviewing the new material to gauge student comprehension. James said a good number of teachers “wanted to revolt” when Leadership Prep first introduced the new lesson model because of the increased workload in crafting daily lesson plans. Some wound up quitting. That first year, the school held three weeks of professional development in the summer, plus a usual hour-per-month session and eight hours each month for Teach Like A Champion training. But Allen says the teachers who stayed have become partners in enhancing the school’s curriculum every day. “They’re constantly coming to us like, ‘Hey, I saw this. Can I try this in the classroom?’” she said. “They’re champions. This work does not exist without their tireless efforts in the push to change.” Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org .

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