SCHOOL PROFILE

W. Alonzo Locke Elementary School is a Title I school. Title I, Part A provides assistance to improve the teaching and learning of children in high-poverty schools to enable those children to meet challenging state academic content and performance standards. It is the largest elementary and secondary education program in the federal government. Title I is designed to support state and local school reform efforts tied to challenging state academic standards in order to reinforce and amplify efforts to improve teaching and learning for students farthest from meeting state standards (U.S. Department of Education).

Locke Elementary is located on the periphery of downtown Memphis, Tennessee. It currently serves 261 children, early childhood (four year olds) through the fifth grade. All students receive federally funded free breakfast and lunch.

Students have attended classes at the present site of Locke Elementary School for more than a century. The school was originally opened as St. Paul School in 1890, the sixth Memphis City School. St. Paul School served the community for fifty-seven years when on September 2, 1947, it was renamed W. Alonzo Locke Elementary School in honor of an esteemed headwaiter who worked at the Peabody Hotel.

The physical plant at Locke School has undergone significant changes during its existence. During the 1950's, the east and west wings of the school were constructed to accommodate an increasing student population. In 1978 the original structure was demolished and replaced by the present center building, with the east and west wings being renovated. The renovation included painting, adding elevators to each of the wings, and installing central heating and air conditioning. In 1994 a room was added to the school by partitioning off the southeast corner of the cafeteria.

Over the past twenty years decisions made by government entities at the local, state and federal levels have effected the student population. In the 1980's over a thousand students were assigned to Locke Elementary causing considerable overcrowding. In 1987 the school boundary was changed and approximately 400 students were reassigned to Georgia Avenue three blocks away. The movement of families from the inner city has affected Locke. During the past ten years the Memphis Housing Authority has assisted many families in moving from public housing developments into Section 8 housing in other areas of the city. Many units in the Cleaborn Housing Development were boarded and year before last a large section of over fifty apartments was vacated and closed. Many of the older houses in the neighborhood have fallen into disrepair, been condemned and removed. There are numerous vacant lots where houses once stood.

In the spring of 1989 the district named Locke a Deregulated School. Longtime principal, Joseph Carr, retired and Albert Finnie was named principal. The school was reconstituted. Many faculty members applied for and kept their positions. Teachers who applied from across the district filled the remaining positions. A council composed of the principal, teachers, parents, and community members administered the school. Teachers received a stipend above the district salary schedule for working at Locke. When in 1993 the district discontinued the stipend and the Deregulated School Program, many of the teachers transferred from Locke. Of all the teachers at Locke during the deregulated period only the librarian remains.

In the spring of 1995, the Locke School faculty assessed the New American School designs and selected the ATLAS (Authentic Teaching, Learning and Assessment for all Students) model as a means of improving instruction. However, at the conclusion of the 2000-01 school year, the Memphis City School Board made the decision to discontinue adherence to all reform models. Nevertheless, many of the components of the ATLAS design remain as integral parts of Locke School's operation. For example, the School Leadership Council and School Support Team, which promotes collaborative relationship among social service/health, care providers and educators are still in existence. Instruction in the classroom is still a social process in which students actively pursue answers to concept-based questions, technology is frequently used to achieve their goals, and performance tasks are used in the form of school exhibitions. The school continues to strive to establish positive working relationships with parents and the community.

The school year consists of 200 days. There are 180 days allotted for instruction. The remaining days are in-service days, administrative days, and holidays. Students attend class from 7:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. Teacher regular work hours are 7:15 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Teachers are provided with a minimum of 150 minutes of planning time each week. At least two times per week all teachers at a grade level are scheduled for common planning time. Scheduling students in support classes--physical education, library, and music, makes this planning time possible. The librarian and music teacher are full time. Locke shares the physical education teacher half time with another elementary school.

One full time Special Education Resource teacher is assigned to Locke. There are 16 students on the Resource roster. Students attend the Resouce class from 30 to 150 minutes per day as specified in their IEP (Individualized Education Plan).

One speech teacher is at Locke two afternoons a week. Speech theraphy is provided for 12 students, including one pre-school student from the Les Passes Center across the street. Sessions are twice weekly for thirty minutes. The speech teacher also screens all kindergarten students and occasionally other students as requested by the Support Team.

There are twenty-one full time and one part time teacher on the faculty. Teachers at Locke have teaching experience from Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Kansas, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. Their years of experience range from 1.5 to forty-one years, with 59% having one to ten years of experience, 18% having eleven to twenty years, 14% having twenty-one to thirty years, and 9% having over thirty years. Two classroom teachers are teaching on a permit. All the others are fully certified. The guidance counselor, in her first year at Locke, has a Masters in Counseling but is working on an Interim B license while she completes the state requirements for school counseling. The physical education teacher and the speech teacher are also working on permits. Master degrees are held by 32% of the faculty and three of these have at least 45 hours above the graduate degree. Two teachers have advanced degrees, one a PhD and one and Ed.D. The principal has thirty-three years of experience with Memphis City Schools, eight as a principal at Locke, five as assistant principal, twelve as a classroom teacher, and the remaining in Central Office positions.

Four teacher assistants who work four hours daily are employed at Locke School. There are two full-time clerical staff members who work in the school's office.

The custodial staff is composed of a building engineer, two full-time custodians, and two part-time custodians. The cafeteria staff is composed of a cafeteria manager, two Helper 2 positions (5 hr.) and four Helper 1 positions (3 hr.).

Students in grades one through five attend library classes once a week for fifty minutes. Kindergarten students have a thirty minute library class twice a week. The librarian hosts open checkout from 12:15 to 1:15 everyday. Students from all classes may return library books and check out new ones. The remainder of the day is for research/flexible scheduling.

Students in grades one through five attend music classes once a week for fifty minutes. Kindergarten students have a thiry minute music class twice a week. By adjusting the music teacher's work hours she is available to provide instruction to a choir of twenty students three afternoons a week.

The physical education teacher is at Locke half days every morning. Students in grades one through five have physical education instruction for fifty minutes per week. Kindergarten students have a thirty minute physical education class twice a week.

The guidance counselor provides both individual and small group counseling. Classroom lessons are provided to supplement the classroom teachers' instruction using the Heartwood Character Education Curriculum and the Second Step Antiviolence Program. The counselor serves as the chairperson of the School Support Team. 

The instructional service of the school involves technology. The 1996 addition of a Computer Curriculum Corporation laboratory has provided supplementary instruction in reading and mathematics for students in grades one through five. Other computers have been distributed to all homeroom classrooms, each receiving at least two computers. Locke Elementary also received Twenty-first Century technology grants in which teaching stations, computer software, and four-computer laboratories were placed in eight classrooms. The 21st Century teachers have received training in the implementation of technology as a part of the program.

The school nurse is in the building on Tuesdays and is available for consultion by telephone on other days.

Success Express, the after school care program, meets every school day from 2:15 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Each year in the late Spring, area preschool programs feeding into Locke are invited to bring their students on a tour of the building. The preschools also distribute a parent letter outlining the requirements for kindergarten and invite the parents to an Open House day.

Locke Elementary is an Arts Focus School in partnership with the Memphis Arts Council. The program provides professional development for teachers in the form of a weeklong arts institute in the summer and a one-day institute on a Saturday in January. The objective of the program is to integrate the arts into the curriculum. The Focus Schools Program is a whole school aesthetic education approach that includes two to four integrated units of study, family nights, artist residencies, visiting artist, ticket subsidies for attendance at art events, resource materials, and professional development. Visiting artists and Arts Council staff also meet regularly with classroom teachers at faculty meetings and on common planning time to collaborate in preparation for artist visits and field trips to arts events.

Memphis City Schools has a very active Adopt-A-School Partnerships program. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Memphis adopted Locke as part of this program in 1981. Since that time they have provided Christmas gifts to all students, Thanksgiving baskets to needy families, gifts of candy at other holidays, free admission to Zoo Camp to selected students, books for the library, and sponsored various essay and art contests.This year employees are volunteering to provide four students with tutoring two days a week. St. Luke's United Methodist Church became an adoptor in 1988. Over the years they have provided money for field trips, books for the library, hats, coats, and gloves for the clothes closet. Every year they provide a dictionary to every fifth grade student at our promotional exercise. This year they also provided uniforms for our clothes closet to assist those families who are having difficulty adhering to the new MCS Uniform Policy. A nearby Office Depot store has joined as a partner this year.

Locke Elementary has a very small Parent Teacher Organization that meets on the second Tuesday of each month. The organization has sponsored the Family Math/Science Nights and Partners In Print sessions for the past two years. The group holds several social events for students and small fundraising events each year.

During the 2001-2002 school year Locke was the recipient of a very generous gift of $40,000 from school alumnus Fred Jones. Mr. Jones, producer of the Southern Heritage Classic and minority owner of the Memphis Grizzlies, donated the money in honor of his first grade teacher, Ms. Bobbie Mathis, who taught at Locke for forty years. The funds are to be spent over the next eight years. A portion of the funds has been spent to purchase books and materials to support the Renaissance Reading (Accelerated Reader) program.

In 2003 Locke Elementary became one of the thirty one schools to receive federal funds to support comprehensive school reform (CSR). The Comprehensive School Reform Program began in 1998 and was authorized as Title I, Part F of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which was signed into law on January 8, 2002. The program builds upon and leverages ongoing efforts at the state and local level to connect challenging academic standards with school improvement. CSR funding provides financial incentives for schools that need to improve student achievement to implement comprehensive school reform programs that are based on scientifically based research and effective practices, and include an emphasis on basic academics and parental involvement. These programs are intended to stimulate schoolwide change covering virtually all aspects of school operations, rather than a piecemeal, fragmented approach to reform.

Back to Locke Home Page