• In partnership with HCDE, PEF serves as fiscal agent for grants from the Benwood Foundation and others who have contributed to this work. 
• PEF has brought expert consultants to Hamilton County to lead discussions of effective methods and strategies for school improvement, and has arranged for school leaders to visit successful schools in Hamilton County and other locations to get ideas that might be useful in their own schools.  
• School leaders meet regularly to learn from each other and discuss common goals and strategies. 
• PEF’s Director of Benwood schools and Leadership Coach work with school leaders to ensure that their plans are ambitious without being unrealistic, and coach and advise them on how best to achieve their goals.
• PEF provides data on the benchmark measures of the Benwood Initiative. This allows each school to know its strengths and weaknesses and to focus sharply on areas that need improvement.

Funding for Hamilton County’s Benwood initiative has come primarily from the local Benwood Foundation, which has contributed or pledged a total of $13 million to this work. PEF raised an additional $3 million from other national and local funders including the Annenberg Foundation.

Other partners have contributed funding, expertise, energy, and goodwill to the process. Such partners include:

• the Weldon F. Osborne Foundation, which has funded the Osborne Fellows program to provide a Master’s Degree in Urban Education to selected teachers;
• the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, which has broken new ground in developing, supporting and implementing the Osborne Fellows program;
• the Urban League of Chattanooga, which created a program to allow students from four Benwood schools to participate in an array of academic and cultural activities and which helps fund Family Partnership Specialists to help parents learn how to enhance their children’s education;
• the Community Education Alliance, formed by former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker to provide bonuses to Benwood teachers and principals who met specific student achievement goals;
• the Annenberg Foundation, which provided additional funding for consulting teachers and Family Partnership Specialists. 

The goals of the first phase of the Benwood Initiative were focused on increasing literacy for 3^rd graders, since 3^rd grade has been pinpointed as a key year for developing a child’s ability to read. (Research has shown that a child who cannot read by third grade is unlikely to succeed in school – ever.) The Benwood Initiative set out to ensure that within 5 years:

• 100% of 3^rd graders would be reading above or at grade level.
• Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) scores would measure annual gain of above average (B) or exemplary (A) in all subjects tested.
• Teacher profile (experience and education level) would mirror the district average.
• Student and teacher attendance would be above 95%.
• Parent and teacher surveys would show 95% satisfaction.

As we embark on phase II, the goals are similar, though they have shifted to address weaknesses of the original plan. The new goals include a focus on the 5^th grade. This is an effort to make sure that the successes achieved by 3^rd grade are carried on, and that children are prepared for middle and high school. 

• Every child will be promoted from 5^th grade as a strong reader, a good writer, and a skilled solver of a wide range of math problems.
• Before the end of the Initiative, 100% of 5^th graders will score “proficient” in reading and the percentage of students scoring “advanced” will have increased by at least 25%.
• Before the end of the initiative, all 5^th graders will score “proficient” in math and the percentage of students scoring “advanced” will have increased by at least 25%.
• Before the end of the initiative, all 5^th graders will score in the “exemplary” range (4.0 or better) on the Tennessee writing exam.
• In reading and mathematics, every school will earn a grade of “A,” denoting exemplary progress, in the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System.
• Every school will be led by a visionary team of educators who are experts in instruction and data analysis.
• The Leadership Team will coordinate data analysis and professional development with the school as a whole, oversee horizontal and vertical planning on a regular basis, and create school environment conducive to learning.
• Every school will be staffed by highly skilled, highly committed, and highly effective teachers.
• The profile of teachers, as measured by experience, educational attainment, and attendance, will be exemplary.
• By the end of the initiative, each school will increase the percentage of high performing teachers.
• The teacher turnover rate will be significantly reduced by the end of the initiative.
• Every school will benefit from the support and high expectations of elected officials, community leaders, and families.
• The school will work actively with the local community, business partners, and families to support the other goals in order to achieve the vision.

• Set clear goals
• Build strong leadership teams
• Invest in effective teaching
• Review data constantly
• Provide incentives and rewards

To implement these strategies, the main focus of the Benwood initiative has been strong teaching. PEF-Benwood funding has been used primarily to train classroom teachers in reading instruction, hire reading specialists to work with struggling readers, place a wide variety of books in all classrooms, provide coaches for new teachers, and provide leadership coaches to help principals and assistant principals guide and evaluate teachers.

Another element of this has been the recruitment, training and retention of excellent teachers. PEF documented a wide disparity in the experience levels of urban and suburban teachers, mirroring a national shortage of qualified, experienced teachers in economically distressed communities. In addition to providing a variety of teacher training for all Benwood teachers, PEF, HCDE, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) and the Weldon F. Osborne Foundation have implemented the Osborne Fellows Initiative, which provides a unique opportunity for selected Benwood teachers to obtain a master’s degree in urban education. Local government also contributed to teacher recruitment and retention through individual and school-wide performance bonuses, housing incentives and free master’s degree tuition.

• Move students from “proficient” to “advanced” as the criterion of successful learning
• Work with all grades preK through 5th (not just early elementary)
• Focus on numeracy while continuing the focus on literacy
• Focus on “rigor” and help teachers understand when and how their lessons contain rigorous material and expectations 
• Change the locus of professional development increasingly into schools and change the deliverers of professional development from consultants and consulting teachers to Lead Teachers
• Add model classrooms in every school as a learning/modeling strategy
• Change the structure of school leadership teams to include more teacher leaders and those who work with families
• Provide district-led professional development – followed up by train-the-trainer work to transfer learning into the schools – for issues that are increasingly becoming urgent in the schools: e.g. English as a Second Language, differentiated instruction, use of data, etc.  
• Use networks of school leaders – principals, assistant principals, lead teachers, others – as a strategy for shared learning and a vehicle for the school-based educators to own the work
• Use other strategies to increase the amount of peer feedback and learning: e.g. school educators participating on school observation teams; schools presenting annual plans to one another, etc.
• Encourage clusters of “networked learning communities” to encourage K-12 sharing
• Work within the new HCDE area districts to align elementary reform work with high school and middle school work
• Change central office staff from regulatory to service-oriented roles, with the expectation that they observe and work in schools every week
• Extend the community connections for schools and use these connections to build community support
• Document the work as it proceeds in order to share externally
• Involve different types of staff from the partners in order to transfer lessons and assure alignment K-12  

For more information on the Benwood Initiative, contact:
Faye Pharr, Project Manager
Lonita Davidson, Leadership Coach