Find out what it’s like to teach with MCS from an MCS teacher!

What better way to learn what teaching at a Memphis City Schools campus is like than from a Memphis City Schools teacher?

Click HERE to sign up for a 15-minute Applicant Interest Conversation, and you’ll be able to find out more about our district in a one-on-one phone call with an MCS teacher.

Interest conversation slots are filling up fast, so we encourage you to sign up as soon as possible. We will make additional conversation slots available later in the hiring season.

Also, if you’re in town on April 26, we are hosting an hour-long information session where district teachers and a representative from the Teacher Effectiveness Initiative will talk about working with MCS and the new Teacher Effectiveness Measure. More information about this event can be found in the Upcoming Events calendar on the Teach Memphis homepage.

A first year MCS teacher illustrates the value of value-added data

Jonathan Alfuth, a first-year algebra and geometry teacher at Hamilton High, writes about understanding and utilizing value-added data to improve instruction at the Gates Foundation’s Impatient Optimists:

By design, a value-added metric is a statistical analysis of achievement data that measures a student’s progress over time, with the goal of isolating growth attributable to a single teacher. As a new teacher just learning my craft, I want to be able to use the information, along with other evaluation measures, to improve my classroom practice—to learn what I’m doing well, and what I need to work on.

It’s why I firmly believe that schools are right to use value-added metrics (information on student growth) as one measure to evaluate teachers’ effectiveness.

In Memphis City Schools’ evaluation system, 35 percent of my teacher evaluation this year will come from value-added data. But precisely because this data is being used to measure how well we’re doing our jobs, teachers, especially younger teachers, also need to understand how it works, and how we can use it to improve our craft.

What’s next for teachers at potential iZone schools?

The iZone is a special subset of MCS schools that applied to receive additional funding through a School Improvement Grant (SIG) to implement one of four state-approved turn around models in order to improve student achievement. There are a total of seven schools that may be in the iZone beginning in 2012-13:

- Magnolia Elementary
- Hamilton Middle
- Fairley Elementary
- Geeter Middle
- Ford Road Elementary
- Chickasaw Middle
- Lucie E. Campbell Elementary

If you are a teacher at one of these schools, you may reapply for your position. This will be a competitive process that will be announced to teachers at all potential iZone campuses soon. You can also secure a position for next year at a non-iZone school through the voluntary transfer process, the latest round of which closes on Thursday, April 5.

All teachers interested in participating in the voluntary transfer process should complete and submit a Surplus teacher online application at www.teachmemphis.org. Please review the Transfer Teacher section of the website for more information. If you already have a Transfer application on file, we will ensure your application is on the right track (Transfer track or Surplus track) once your School Improvement Grant is announced.

For more information about iZone schools, please click HERE. For more information about the Achievement School District, please click HERE.

Current MCS Teachers: Training and Instruction Manager needed with Memphis Teaching Fellows

Memphis Teaching Fellows (MTF), a high quality alternate route into the classroom for outstanding career changers from a variety of backgrounds, is looking for current or former Memphis City Schools teachers with at least three years of experience to apply for a Training and Instruction Manager position.

For more information and to apply, please click HERE.

The Training and Instruction Manager is responsible for the successful execution of all instructional programming for the Memphis Teaching Fellows and Tennessee Practitioner Teacher Program (TNPTP), resulting in the site meeting its individual goals for the implementation and successful completion of the year-long certification training program.

The Training and Instruction Manager will be responsible for ensuring the effectiveness of half of the Fellows by managing Seminar Leaders and Effectiveness Coaches and creating the direct link between seminar and classroom performance for their Fellows.

The Training and Instruction Manager has an additional area of focus related to seminars. The Training and Instruction Manager is responsible for managing submissions of portfolios, end of year evaluations, licensure recommendations and implementation of the Assessment of Classroom Effectiveness.