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Schools across Tennessee are anxiously awaiting state test scores to see if they’ll be labeled passing, struggling, or failing. At a Nashville charter school, Smithson-Craighead Academy, the stakes are high. It may close.

The charter school desperately wants to avoid a two-strikes-you’re-out ending. Math is the key that will keep doors open or shut them for good.

The Numbers

Third grade math teacher Rhonda Dockery knows the fate of her school and her job lie in test scores that have yet to be released.

It’s a Wednesday morning. She scoots next to a boy who’s twirling a pencil. His head is spinning with fractions.

“The bottom number is an ordinal number. You hear me?” she asks. “What are you going to put for this one?”

“Two thirds,” the student replies softly.

“You know I’m getting happy now. Put it down. I’m getting real happy now,” Dockery says.

More right answers like that could save Smithson-Craighead.

Rhonda Dockery plays a math game with her students at Smithson Craighead Academy.

The city’s first charter school opened in 2003. It’s never met benchmarks set under No Child Left Behind but has received a passing grade because the elementary school always showed progress – kids testing better than the year before – until last year when scores slipped backwards. For Dockery, a 28-year teaching veteran, it was an unwelcome first.

“I’ve never had a failing class. Never.” she says.

What’s worse is that she saw it coming. She remembers what she calls “foolishness.” Kids were not paying attention. Fights were a problem.

“I hate to say that but after what I had gone through that year I really didn’t think they were gonna make it,” Dockery says. “And they didn’t.”

Two Strikes, You’re Out

The consequences of not meeting benchmarks were clear. State law says if a charter school doesn’t show progress in the same subject two years in a row, it closes. That strict accountability is in place because charters have a specific job.

They must find ways to teach kids who weren’t learning in traditional classrooms. Charters get public funds but decide teacher pay, class size, the entire school structure on their own. And if kids don’t show gains, the charter’s plug is pulled.

Rebecca McGaugh is a first grade teacher at Smithson Craighead.

First grade teacher Rebecca McGaugh remembers tears when the school learned they had one year to improve or else.

“What we were doing wasn’t working, and we’re going to have to get comfortable with change which nobody wants to do,” McGaugh says. “But it kicked us in the butt. We have to do something.”

Steps Taken To Try and Avoid Closure

Smithson-Craighead teachers started holding weekly brainstorming sessions last year, coming up with ways to catch kids who lag behind. Their meeting room is barely big enough to fit the school’s twelve teachers and its principal. They sit shoulder to shoulder in a circle, like a team huddle.

A teacher lists off ways to boost comprehension of difficult lessons. She looks out at the circle as she speaks.

“Extended time on testing assignments, abbreviating assignments all those will help skill mastery,” she says.

Some in the room half-joke it feels like there’s a target on their backs.

As many as 30 Tennessee schools may be labeled failing when scores come out, especially since the state made achievement tests significantly harder this year. Most of those schools will face a warning or the threat of a state takeover. Only Smithson-Craighead and a Memphis charter are facing closure.

Principal Janelle Glover worries about her 200 students having to scatter to unfamiliar schools. She says she tries not to think about it.

“How do we feel? We know our children are learning. We’re just doing our job,” Glover says.

Keeping Teachers Honest

Part of that job is using the meeting room’s white board keeps a list of which students are struggling with concepts guaranteed to appear on state tests. Teachers use the board to update weekly progress with each student. Mrs. Dockery, the school’s math guru, then quizzes kids and teachers just to double-check.

“I’ve been looking on the board. If you have 100 percent beside any group I’ll be around to sit with that group,” Dockery warns. “I’m going to make sure they can do 100 percent of skill you said.”

Dockery is both enforcer and entertainer. She makes math fun and she’s shared her tricks with other teachers. She tells them kids can’t be bored and make the kind of gains they need.

In her class, Dockery makes sure when answers are right, twenty little bodies sitting upright shake with laughter. Recently, when a student answers a word problem correctly she breaks into song.

“They listened to the teacher, and they’re smart as they can be, and the teacher
is very happy,” Dockery sings.

Dockery and the whole school want to stay upbeat even with their future in question. Test scores should be released in December. If enough kids pass, teachers will know they helped rally a comeback. And if that doesn’t happen, Dockery says she’ll pack up her room knowing she left everything she had in her.

“I know I did the best I could,” she says. “That’s all I can do.”

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