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Jeremiah Graham, USA TODAY NETWORK Tennessee 5:44 p.m. CT June 6, 2017

Tuesday's "Celebrate Whats Right" luncheon on the state of education in Memphis had a strong focus on what's still to be done.

We dont need education to reform, said Marcus Robinson, CEO of the philanthropic Memphis Education Fund. "We need education revolution.

The luncheon at the Holiday Inn at the University of Memphis was hosted by New Memphis, an organization with a goal of helpingdevelop students and educators around the city, and the non-profit news organization Chalkbeat.

Robinson said 70,000 children in Shelby County who are living at or below the poverty line were in a failing school. When the state of Tennessee ran a list of the schools in the bottom five percent of performance in the state test scores, he said, 90 percent of those schools were in Shelby County.

His call for more commitment to students, not just in the classroom but at home, was echoed by other speakers such as Achievement Schools executive director Tim Wise and KIPP Memphis Collegiate Schools executive director Kendra Ferguson.

None of this happens without a collective commitment from leadership and a commitment of those individuals who have taken up the banner and stand up for students and say, 'I want for you what I want for myself. I demand excellence from myself and I demand it from you as well,' Wise said.

Meanwhile, Robert S. Harvey, chief executive officer of Star Academy, said he believes that by shrinking the school body, teachers and faculty can form more personalized relationships with students and produce better results.

I think that we are stuck in the 19th Century industrialization where bigger is better and more is more, Harvey said. But I wonder because of Star's reality what does it look like to grow by staying small?

Star Academy has never surpassed 250 students, he said, but he touted its results.

We have blue-ribbon status and our kids are going to the middle school of their choice, completing high school at a 100 percent graduation rate, he said. "We do not grow by being big, we grow by being small.

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Educators say there's still much work to do in Memphis - The Commercial Appeal