In partnership with HCDE:

• PEF has brought expert consultants to Hamilton County to lead discussions of effective methods and strategies for high school improvement, and has arranged for high 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 together regularly to learn from each other and discuss common goals and strategies.
• PEF’s Director of Schools for a New Society works with school leaders to ensure that their plans are ambitious without being unrealistic, and coaches and advises them on how best to achieve their goals.
• PEF serves as fiscal agent for grants from the Carnegie Corporation, the Annenberg Foundation, and others who have contributed to this work.
• PEF provides data on the benchmark measures of SNS. This allows each school to know its strengths and weaknesses and to focus sharply on areas that need improvement.

 
Funding

Funding for Hamilton County’s high school reform initiative began with an $8 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Hamilton County is one of 7 school systems funded under Carnegie’s Schools for a New Society program.

PEF raised an additional $6 million from other national and local funders such as the Annenberg Foundation, the Benwood Foundation, the Community Foundation, the Lyndhurst Foundation, and numerous individual donors.

Goals

Hamilton County’s high school reform effort includes four major goals: 

1. Increase the number of students passing high school Gateway exams, with strong increases in the number scoring “advanced;”
2. Increase the graduation rate;
3. Increase the promotion rate for 9th to 10th grade (since a strong ninth-grade year greatly increases a student’s chance of graduating four years later);
4. Increase the number of graduates who enroll in college.

Strategies

While individual high school strategies reflect each school’s unique requirements and characteristics, every plan contains the same key features: 

• Ensure that each student is known well by several adults and gets an education that is challenging and relevant.
• Increase the number of low-income and minority students taking rigorous academic courses.
• Provide professional development for principals to lead and manage instructional reform.
• Provide professional development for teachers to align their teaching to their students’ needs and learning styles. 

To read more about each school’s progress and plans, please see SNS plan summaries.  

Results  

For more information on Schools for a New Society, contact:
Bill Kennedy
423.668.2429