John KlyceMemphis Commercial Appeal
In 1993, Roderick Richmond began his career as an English Language Arts teacher at Airways Middle, part of what is now Memphis-Shelby County Schools. At the time, he didn’t have any plans to move into administration. Richmond was still fresh out of college, and not dramatically older than the students he was teaching. Just five years before, he had graduated from Trezevant High School.
But Richmond’s supervisors saw something in him ― a leadership quality that led them to believe he was well-suited for roles outside the classroom.
In 1998, Richmond was named an assistant principal at Ross Elementary School. From there, he continued to climb the ranks within MSCS and find success. As chief academic officer, he played a key role in the merger between Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools, which formed the MSCS of today. As executive director of student support services, he helped schools attain “Reward” status from TDOE.
Now, more than three decades after joining the district as a teacher, Richmond is taking on one of his most consequential roles yet: he’s been tasked with turning around the schools that received a D or F from the Tennessee Department of Education.
“I’m extremely hopeful,” he told reporters Tuesday. “We want to transform the schools. And the first thing we want to do is to create schools that students and teachers escape to, rather than from.”
Helping schools level up
“Transform” is a fitting word for Richmond to use, as the title of his new role is transformation officer. He’ll oversee the 76 schools that have received a D or F, as well as athletics, discipline hearings, and college, career, and technical education programs that help students prepare for life after graduation.
His work with the struggling schools is a major focus. MSCS Superintendent Marie Feagins has named the schools that received a D or F “Supe Schools,” while schools that received a C have been named “Ignite Schools” and schools that received an A or B have been named “Soar Schools.”
Richmond’s hope is to consistently improve the letter grades of the "Supe Schools," which would push them into the “Ignite” category and eventually give them “Soar” status. This is easier said than done, as many of these schools are wrestling with low test scores and high chronic absenteeism rates.
But Richmond is confident that the schools can improve, in part, by a focus on what he refers to as “the five As:” academics, attendance, attitude ― think social-emotional learning ― the arts, and athletics.
All these things, he believes, are intertwined and Richmond explained that he and his team are taking a “deep dive” into the Supe Schools.
“We're looking at leadership in the schools. We're looking at teachers in the schools,” he said. "We're focusing on student data, because we know all of those individuals are individuals, and we want to differentiate how we support them.”
They’re also looking closely at instruction and curriculum. And once they’ve taken all this into account ― from leadership to teachers to student data to textbooks ― they’ll develop strategies that should be ready to go by the first day of the school year, and are specific to the Supe Schools.
“We're looking at creating this plan and using data to look at, ‘What does each ecosystem look like,’ as we approach the varying schools," Richmond said.
'Every single thing that I do'
Already, he and his team are discovering things they can do to improve the schools that received a D or F. In speaking with principals, they found that a lot of the teachers in the Supe Schools are “on permit” ― which essentially means they might not be fully certified or qualified for their roles.
This is something Richmond wants to change.
“One thing we'll be doing is trying to make sure that, if we have teachers on permit, we're strengthening their level of effectiveness,” he said. “We're providing...supports via professional development, to make sure that we help them to reach a level of effectiveness that can support the learning of our students.”
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He also wants to make sure he spends plenty of time in the schools versus the central office. After all, Richmond started as a teacher ― and he hasn’t forgotten this.
“Every single thing that I do is going to always have the mindset of a teacher,” he said. “I always approach the work, through educator, coach, and teacher lens, because each and everything that you're doing, each and every day, you're coaching and teaching, whether you're leading adults, or whether you're leading children.”
John Klyce covers education and children's issues for The Commercial Appeal. You can reach him at John.klyce@commercialappeal.com.
