Cameras to Roll Soon at Airways Middle School To Document its “EPIC” Success

It’s a typical lunch period at Airways Middle School.  While students are seated at round tables throughout the lunchroom with their food in front of them, the school’s PDSCC Cammesha Sims is working her way around the cafeteria with energy and purpose. And what Ms. Sims does during the lunch period rivals the best game show TV has to offer.  In an engaging manner, Ms. Sims is helping to feed the minds of the students while they eat their lunches. She rattles off math questions – “Mrs. Jones paid $19.27 for hot wings and gave the clerk a $20 bill. The clerk gave her 53 cents in change. Was that the right amount?  If not, how much should she have gotten back?” – and watches for hands to shoot into the air.  Students compute answers in their heads, competing to be the first with the correct answer.  The atmosphere is spirited and collegial, and it’s obvious that the lunch period is something that the students both enjoy and look forward to, regardless of what may or may not be on the food menu that day.

This is just one of the techniques being used at Airways Middle to boost student achievement and engagement, techniques that are being documented to tell the story of Airways Middle to educators across the country.

The story of Airways Middle School is a story of success, of beating the odds, of determination and discipline, of change and of hope.  It’s a story that will be shared later this year on a national platform for the educational world to see, to review and study, and from which to learn.

Airways Middle is one of five schools whose TCAP and Gateway gains over a one-year period earned the designation as Gold-Gain Schools in this pilot year of the Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) Program.  Over the last several months, school administrators at the award-winning schools had to complete a self-study and participate in a variety of methods of practice documentation. 

By agreeing to open their schools for others to learn from, Gold-Gain schools have been visited by a team of trained experts led by SchoolWorks, an organization trained in identifying school practices that are making a positive difference in the education of students.  These practices are now being documented through multi-media and text-based case studies available for all educators in Memphis City Schools to access for free on a national web-based platform. 

At Airways Middle, the team led by Joe Feldman and Anne Lane wanted to identify the specific challenges the school faced, discover what decisions, steps and actions were taken to address its challenges and needs and identify the practices used that have contributed to the school’s current improved status.

To document the story of Airways Middle School’s success, the team spent many hours at the school talking with school administrators, teachers, members of the support staff and students, as well as observing classrooms in action, school rituals and studying procedures followed at the school.  It meant asking probing questions about the school’s past, its challenges, and how decisions were made and implemented for positive change at the school.

When Airways was designated as a  “Fresh Start” school, the school building had fallen into disarray, morale was low among students and staff, and student achievement needed to improve.  Current principal Sharon Griffin was brought in and began to make changes immediately.

With the “Fresh Start” status, the principal made critical decisions on the direction of the school, hiring new, enthusiastic teachers, creating a freshened school environment throughout the building, promoting the school with her faculty to the external community, modeling enthusiasm and dedication to the students’ academic potential and achievement, and creating a rich school environment with routines, rituals, acronyms and nomenclature that would resonate with students and staff at the school.   She worked with her leadership team and teachers to share leadership and responsibility, to build their capacity and to make it possible for staff to take ownership of new initiatives dealing with grading, behavior and assessment.   

Through interviews and observations, the team began to see that, by having defined and demonstrated priorities clearly, by setting standards and procedures that were explicit, clear, consistent and supportive of student needs, and by actively modeling her beliefs and work ethic, Principal Griffin had launched a new beginning for the school.  Through her openness, candor, can-do spirit and enthusiasm, new ways of “doing business” at Airways have been embraced, and student achievement has improved.

The work of team is now focused on documenting through video and text-based materials ways in which educators at other schools here in Memphis and throughout the country can learn from what has been accomplished at Airways and to share with others how challenges can be met and overcome. Cameras will begin rolling in late March at the school.

In addition to Airways Middle, there are four other Gold-Gain Schools and 12 Silver-Gain Schools that are participating in processes aimed at identifying and sharing the practices that are helping them realize these academic achievement gains.  The other award-winning schools are:
•    Getwell Elementary (Gold-Gain)
•    Lanier Middle School (Gold-Gain)
•    LaRose Elementary (Gold-Gain)
•    Sheffield High School (Gold Gain)
•    A.B. Hill Elementary (Silver-Gain)
•    Berclair Elementary (Silver-Gain)
•    Brookmeade Elementary (Silver-Gain)
•    Holmes Road Elementary (Silver-Gain)
•    Ida B. Wells Academy (Silver-Gain)
•    Keystone Elementary (Silver-Gain)
•    Lakeview Elementary (Silver-Gain)
•    Lincoln Elementary (Silver-Gain)
•    Newberry Elementary (Silver-Gain)
•    Oakshire Elementary (Silver-Gain)
•    Whitehaven High School (Silver-Gain)
•    Winchester Elementary (Silver-Gain)

Silver-Gain schools are working with MCS and New Leaders for New Schools to produce an informational summary of their work to be posted on the online community, and will be asked by MCS to lead local professional development opportunities for their colleagues in MCS.
The EPIC pilot program is the result of a multi-million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Education and is a partnership between Memphis City Schools and New Leaders for New Schools (NLNS). 

Beginning in the 2008-09 school year, the pilot program will expand to include awards to Spotlight Educators in Gold-Gain schools. Criteria is currently being developed by MCS, MEA and New Leaders so that the selection of Spotlight Educators can begin next academic year.   It is expected that up to approximately 60 Spotlight Educators will receive these awards next year.