To the Editor:
While an “array of strategies aims to transform” the public schools in Memphis, Tenn. (“Spotlight Turns on Memphis’ Remake,” Oct. 9, 2013), this reader, finding no mention of evaluation, wonders how anyone will know (without some assessment) whether any of the schools achieves “success.”
With alternative strategies offering opportunities for comparing them, are any studies preparing to measure the effects of various approaches? Not 100 miles to the west, the Little Rock, Ark., school district, with challenges similar to those in Memphis, has abandoned regular evaluations of its programs.
Let’s hope that more serious heads prevail in Memphis, furnishing more solid evidence of effects than test scores and conflicting stakeholders’ claims.
Jim Wohlleb
Evaluation Consultant
Little Rock, Ark.
