By Jane Roberts - The Commercial Appeal -

Promise Academy in North Memphis is the touchstone of faith for a handful of Episcopalians who pooled their expertise and goodwill to see if they could make lasting change in public education.

And according to test results from 2010, the charter outperformed most of the city's elementary schools, school officials say.

But because of a quirk in the way the state scores TCAP tests, Promise is one of three charter schools in Memphis in danger of closing.

The charter got a zero on the writing test, pushing the school's overall reading and language arts scores below par. Promise received the failing grade for the fifth-grade writing test even though the school has never had a fifth grade.

"Everyone is assuming that it is going to be worked out because it is such an illogical place to be," said Charles Gerber, president and chairman of the 14-member Promise board.

But Gerber, who makes a living forecasting finances for endowments and foundations, knows enough about risk to make no promises.

"We're operating as if everything is going to work out," he said. "But let me tell you, our teachers are scared to death."

Under Tennessee's relatively new charter school laws, there is no way to appeal the state grading formula. And once the local school board decides to close a charter for poor performance, there is no redress.

"The law does not give either the Tennessee Department of Education or the state Board of Education any role or authority in this matter," said state education department spokeswoman Amanda Morris.

The decision to close Promise, Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering and the middle school at Memphis Business Academy will be up to the Memphis City Schools board of education. Supt. Kriner Cash has said he likely will recommend closure, saying that even if he didn't, the schools' scores make it unlikely they would catch up in a year.

The scores for 2011 tests are not yet public, but Gerber's research on 2010 results show that Promise's third- and fourth-graders ranked at the 83rd percentile among city schools and 67th in reading.

If they have to fight to keep the school open, parents are ready to mobilize. The problem is they don't know exactly how -- or where -- to fight this battle.

Melissa Kyle would be forced to send her daughters, Makaila, 8, and Makyia, 5, to Springdale, the closest city school.

"I don't want to do that because that is the rough end of the neighborhood," Kyle said. "We like Promise because the teachers are so nice.

"My daughter has come a long way here. She started without any preschool or anything."

Friends at Emmanuel Episcopal Center -- including Gerber, Rev. Colenzo Hubbard and Tom Beazley, former headmaster at Grace St. Luke's Episcopal School -- worked out details for the school. The charter started at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Frayser, Hubbard's former parish.

"We worked extremely hard to build a strong academic program," Hubbard said. "We have some pretty impressive numbers. We missed (adequate yearly progress) by one-tenth of one percent."

With a $1.7 million endowment, personal gifts of about $200,000 per year and an enrollment of 425 students, Promise parents say the universe at the corner of Chelsea and Hollywood is visibly brighter.

Chandale Loving said the attention her son and daughter get at Promise helped with behavioral problems at home.

"They take time out here to spend with the children and work out what the issues are," she said.

It's "hurtful and stressful," Loving said, to think the school could close.

In Nashville, Matt Throckmorton, executive director of the Tennessee Charter School Association, is making a case for Promise.

"We don't need a waiver," he said. "The state just needs to look at this grading formula and make the proper adjustment."

Promise started as a way to feed academically strong students to KIPP Diamond Academy, one of the earliest and most successful charters in Memphis.

With a $750,000 gift from the Assisi Foundation and steady gifts from Hyde Family Foundations and several dozen private Memphians, the Promise board in 2007 voted to lease the vacant Hollywood Elementary from MCS for $300,000 a year.

"One of the ironies of all this madness we are going through with this threat of closure is that we have been trying to negotiate a long-term lease with city schools," Gerber said. "Kriner Cash is very supportive and cooperative. But it's hard for us to do anything because we need to do some renovations, but we can't do that under threat of closure."

Promise wants to acquire the blighted property across from the school for a new gym.

"But unless we have some sort of understanding that we we are going to be here, we can't do that," said Beazley, struggling for a minute over the complexity. "It would be reckless of us."

-- Jane Roberts: (901) 529-2512