Midtown Public Charter School

Midtown Public Charter School is situated in the center of Jackson, Mississippi. Like many charter schools, it was born out of a need in the community. After a local public school closed, families advocated for a walkable school close to home, and the vision for Midtown came to life.

Since opening its doors in 2012, Midtown has grown grade by grade. Today, it operates two campuses: the primary school campus, which serves pre-K through 3rd grade students and the middle school campus, serving 4th through 8th grade. 

It’s evident that Midtown is much more than just a center of learning, it’s a hub of the community. From helping families get uniforms, to partnering with churches for food assistance, to sitting down with parents to complete enrollment forms, the Midtown team is determined to remove barriers that can get in the way of learning.

This philosophy extends across everything they do, including literacy. Midtown’s Assistant Principal Tamara Smith explains that some students come in not knowing any letters or sounds, so “we start from the ground up.”

While Midtown had all of the right academic supports in place—including a phonics-based curriculum, small group instruction, and intervention blocks—teachers needed more visibility into each student’s specific reading needs and the tools to respond with precision.

The insight they needed came when the Mississippi Department of Education approved Istation ISIP as the state’s only universal reading screener. Building on this moment, the 2025–26 school year will bring a major update for Mississippi schools. Istation ISIP will be upgraded as part of the Istation and Amira Learning merger—combining the best of ISIP and Amira Assess to deliver a more accurate, reliable, and valid reading assessment.

Istation is now an integral part of Midtown’s literacy program, as well as its school culture. All PreK through 3rd grade students work with the program every day. And teachers use Istation to plan and deliver daily instruction, and to monitor student’s progress each month.

When asked about the impact Istation ISIP has made, Patrick shares a personal story. His own niece began pre-K at Midtown mid-year. While bright and eager, she only scored at Level 1 on her initial reading assessment.

“My sister, my mama, and I were all in shock. She knew her shapes, colors, the alphabet. We were wondering how in the world she could be a Level 1,” he says. “But after just two and a half months of trusting the process, she went from a Level 1 to a Level 3.”

Tamara shares a story of another PreK student, who came in with no literacy skills at all. Yet, with data–driven instruction and support, she progressed to a Level 2 by the end of the school year. “Her mom had tears in her eyes because she was so happy with the progress her baby made,” recalls Tamara.

To keep students motivated and celebrate progress, Midtown launched a monthly contest to honor the student who shows the most reading growth. They hold an award ceremony and, as the drum rolls, they recognize the winning student with a special Istation cape. They also celebrate reading growth at the end of the year by giving students trophies and graduation-style chords, a new tradition that both students and families love.

Tamara and Patrick credit Istation, now Amira Learning, for helping them coach their teachers to be more intentional, empowered, and data-driven. “They’re not just following a curriculum,” says Patrick. “They’re using data to make decisions, and they’re seeing the results.”

Because of the outcomes they’ve seen with their early readers, Midtown is looking at extending its use of Istation to its 4th through 8th graders as well. Patrick explains, “We’re seeing some similar gaps in 4th grade, and we know if we can introduce Istation in conjunction with their Tier 1 instruction as well, we can close those.”