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The East High Alumni Page presents:

Today's East High School
East High School, Memphis, Tennessee

Some information about East High School in the present time.
Another good source of current information about East High is our
East In the News section, our At the school listing, our History Section, and the school's web site.

For selected current events at the school, please see our At the school listing
Academics Building and Campus
2009 Report Card on Schools Released

November 3, 2009 - The Tennessee Department of Education released its annual "report card" on schools showing the latest standardized test averages. Methods and baseline years have been changed, making comparison to previous years' reports difficult or impossible. However, the score The East High Alumni Page finds important is one that does not change methods often, the ACT. For those East High students taking the ACT in 2008-2009, the average composite ACT score was 17.07. While that score is up from last year's 16.72, it is significantly below the state average. It also is approximately equivalent to a pre-1989 ACT score of  13.07. White Station High School, often cited as the best academic high school in the Memphis City School system in the present era, achieved a 2009 composite ACT score of 23.71. You may view the 2009 Report Card figures about our school by searching for "East High"  in the form at the Tennessee Department of Education web site.


Below is information previously posted about academics at East High.

East High remains on "target" list of schools not meeting benchmarks.
July 23,  2009 - East High remains on the Tennessee Department of Education's "target" list for the 2009-2010 school year, indicating the school's pupils did not meet one or more benchmarks in testing during the 2008-2009 year. After being on the more serious "high priority" list for several years, East was upgraded in 2008 to the target list. The high priority list is for schools that have failed to meet the same benchmarks in 2 or more years. The 2008 Department of Education "Report Card on Schools" cited East as being deficient in Reading/Language Arts/Writing and graduation rate. Since the criteria for the high priority list is having failed to meet the same benchmark(s) for 2 years in a row, and East has not been placed back on that list, it would seem to imply that East may have performed satisfactorily in those categories of English and graduation rate but failed to meet the guidelines in another category. Such a scenario would be surprising since the other major category is math and The Greater East High Foundation has concentrated on tutoring in math at the school for several years and math scores have been improving. Details about where the school's pupils failed to meet the benchmarks likely won't be revealed until the 2009 Report Card on Schools is released later this year.

In the initial report posted here yesterday, it was indicated that it was unknown if East was on the target list since that list was unavailable. It was further speculated that since East did not move back to the high priority listing, it might also free itself from the targeted school list since if it had failed in the same categories as it previously did it would have qualified as high priority. The Tennessee Department of Education does not publish the list of targeted schools because it does not wish those schools to be labeled as failing. However, the list was made available through a public records request and therefore we were today able to somewhat clarify the situation regarding East High.

East Fails to maintain progress in 2008
according to standardized test results
Read our report
See the state Report Card data

Also see these documents:
2009 Computer Statistics (Compstat) Report on East High School Problems & Courses of Action

Meet Eric Harris, East's new principal
Get to know our new principal, Eric Harris ('91). Read the new edition of the Mustang Roundup - Alumni Edition!

Eric Harris, a 1991 graduate of East, was appointed prnicipal of the school in June, 2010.A new principal was appointed to East High School to take over in the summer of 2010. Mr. Eric Harris is a 1991 graduate of East. His previous assignment was a "11th grade principal" at White Station High School, Memphis City Schools most academically successful school. A grade specific principal is an assistant principal assigned to oversee the pupils in that one grade. Mr. Harris was charged, along with the principal of White Station, with a violation of state law in allegedly failing to report a physical attack on a White Station student in September, 2009. Both have waived a November, 2010 juvenile court hearing and asked that the case be heard in criminal court. Subsequently, both have been indicted by the Shelby County Grand Jury in mid August, 2010. The charge is a misdemeanor and school system officials clearly did not lose confidence in  Mr. Harris and he not only continued in his position at White Station but was then promoted to the top job at East High.

As of August, 2007, the school known as East High became, for the first time in its history, only a high school. There is no middle school, or junior high, on campus. East High has only classes for grades 9 through 12. Grade 8 was eliminated after the 2006-2007 school year, grade 7 was moved the previous year. Elementary classes were discontinued after the 1984-1985 school year.

East High is the location for the school system's optional school program for college preparatory classes in health sciences, engineering, and allied health.

In January, 1999,  East High School was chosen as one of
25 schools in the nation to be a "New American High School."

New American High Schools are selected to participate in a program with the goal of fully preparing students to meet the challenges of a changing technological and global economy. These schools expose students to information about careers while adhering to challenging academic standards. They help students acquire the communications, problem-solving, computer and technical skills
necessary to pursue college or other opportunities. The schools develop partnerships with the community, parents and post secondary institutions and are expected to demonstrate sustained student academic performance. Schools participating in this initiative have committed to monitor their academic activities in order to better gage their improvement in a number of areas. These include raising student achievement by focusing on specifics such as curriculum, teaching methods, after-school help, accountability, and effective relationships with middle schools and post secondary institutions.

Information about East's selection as a New American High School and the program itself is from  The United States Department of Education. More information about the selection of East is available from the East In the News section of The East High Alumni Page.

For more information on the New American High School program itself, visit the U.S. Department of Education's NAHS web page

November 10, 2008 - The 2008 "report card" on schools was released and despite some slippage, East is removed from the state's "high priority" list.
Read our report
See the state Report Card data

November 3, 2007 - The 2007 "report card" on schools was released November 2, 2007. See the data about East High at the Tennessee Department of Education web site. Use the tabs near the top of that page to see the various sections of data.

August 6, 2007 - State Recognizes improvement at East High. See our In the News ... section.


July 31, 2007 - Tennessee Department of Education intervenes in the running of 17 Memphis City Schools, including East High School. See our report and the State's directives.


2005 Annual Yearly Progress evaluation indicates failure to meet standards. Read more...


Dept.of Education Year 2004 Report Card on East High - click here
One-room school houseSummer, 2010 - After an East High advanced placement history class participated in a project that led to it proposing a move of a one-room school house to the East High campus, the city school board passed a resolution to study the feasibility of such a move. Then The Greater East High Foundation got involved and is planning to support the proposed move and include various ancillary activities and objects. As of mid-August, no final decision has been made. The one-room school house was last used in the mid 1960s on Mud Island for African American pupils. For more on this news, see the Daily Update page and the In the News page.


Fence along southern edge of East High Campus between the athletic fields and Poplar Avenue.Fenced in? A new fence was observed in the spring of 2008. Since part of the campus is also used by the Parks Division of the City of Memphis, it was not immediately known if the fence was erected by the Parks Department or by the school system. The green hurricane fence extends along the southern edge of the campus between the athletic fields and Poplar Avenue. There is no corresponding fence on the Walnut Grove Road side of the campus. There is an entry at the west end of the campus and one can walk around the end of the gate on the east side to access the athletic fields and the Sportplex park.

A renovated science classroom, 2007.August 1, 2007 - Today's East High looks quite a bit different inside than the old East High after a $12.8 million renovation, at least at first glance. Would you know if you're in your old school if you suddenly found yourself in the classroom pictured here? Take a photo tour with the Mustang Roundup - Alumni Edition.

East Career and Technology Center There are two schools on the East High Campus today: East High School and the East Career and Technology Center. The career and technology center had its beginnings with the construction of a vo-tech building in 1976. An additional building was added for the optional school programs (health sciences and engineering) in 1984. In 2006, these two buildings became part of a separate school from East High and the optional school programs were moved to the main building. The new buildings were placed on the highest point on the campus where some elementary classes had recess and several trees were removed to make way for the buildings.

East High SportplexIn 1999, the Memphis Park Commission and City Schools completed a joint project to make the athletic fields area of campus the East High Sportplex. It features a 3/4 mile fitness trail, the school's 4 Lane 400m track,  2 soccer fields, 1 football/soccer field,  2 baseball/softball fields, and a playground. See our "In the news ..." section for more details.

About 1960, a senior high Physical Education dressing room was added to the school. It was used almost exclusively for senior high boys athletic programs.

In 1954, the auditorium was completed and opened. It had been removed from the original construction plans to save money. The auditorium was extensively remodeled in 2007.

"The annex,"  a 1951 addition to the school to provide additional classrooms to alleviate overcrowding was used for classes until the mid 1980s and then was used for offices and storage. In 2003, in association with a mold scare, it was demolished.


For more information about the building(s) and campus, please see our history page and our In the news ... section. Also for selected current events, see our At the school listing.








Pick 2 and become an involved alumnus
And in sports:

2010  Football Schedule
Day       Date           Opponent                           Location
Friday 08/13/2010   Wooddale (Jamboree)     5th Quarter Fairgrounds
Friday 08/20/2010   Olive Branch HS               Olive Branch, MS   7pm
Friday 08/27/2010   Shannon HS                      Shannon, MS
   7pm
Friday 09/03/2010   Hamilton                            Crump   7pm
Friday 09/10/2010   Southwind                         Southwind   7pm
Friday 09/17/2010   White Station*                 Fairgrounds   7pm
Friday 09/24/2010   MUS                                   MUS   7pm
Friday 10/01/2010   Melrose                             Crump   7pm
Friday 10/08/2010   Mitchell                            Whitehaven   7pm
Friday 10/22/2010   Whitehaven**                Fairgrounds   7pm
Friday 10/29/2010   Central                              Crump   7pm

*Alumni Night
** Homecoming



No other schedules are available as of June, 2010.
Sports Championships: State


Know when East was Champ?
The athletic director at East High is attempting to identify championships won by East High athletic teams and individuals during its history. If you were a member, or coached, a championship team, let us know and we will compile a list and forward it to the athletic director. District, City, Regional, State* and other championships are welcome and information as to the sport (i.e. women's track), level (senior/junior high), and year of championship is needed. You may e-mail the information to editor@EastHigh.org.
* We are aware of the TSSAA state championship listings.



For more information about the building(s) and campus, please see our history page and our In the news ... section. Also for selected current events, see our At the school listing. You may also wish to see the school's official web site.

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