What Is a High Priority School?

The High Priority schools are composed of Memphis City School’s high-need campuses that need the most aggressive initiatives to get back in good standing so they are serving their students and closing the achievement gap.  We know that the most important factor in increasing student achievement in the most high-need schools is having a highly effective teacher in the classroom. In order to increase the odds of getting the most high-potential teachers into these schools, all High Priority schools will see increased levels of support and intervention for principals, teachers, students and parents compared to traditional schools.

The district’s High Priority Schools are determined using Tennessee’s No Child Left Behind standards for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Each High Priority School failed to make AYP for at least three years and falls under one of the categories between School Improvement II and State/LEA Reconstitution on the Tennessee Department of Education’s Accountability Chart for Schools. The schools can be broken down into three different groups: the Achievement School District, the Striving Schools Zone and School Improvement II.