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| Education Sector Releases Study of Benwood Initiative - (04/07/2008) | Education Sector, a national independent nonpartisan education think tank, today released a new report "The Benwood Plan: A Lesson in Comprehensive Teacher Reform.”
Chattanooga's Benwood Initiative is one of the most widely touted school-reform success stories of recent years. And many credit its success to financial incentives used to lure new teachers to low-performing schools. But the Benwood Initiative was about much more than pay incentives and attracting new teacher talent, concludes a new report from Education Sector.
In The Benwood Plan: A Lesson in Comprehensive Teacher Reform, Senior Policy Analyst Elena Silva argues that Benwood's success was not just about recruiting better teachers, but helping existing teachers improve the quality of their instruction. The report includes a new analysis of "value-added" teacher effectiveness data conducted for Education Sector, which indicates that over a period of six years, existing teachers in the eight Benwood elementary schools improved steadily.
"This improvement was by design," writes Silva. "The district invested heavily in mentoring programs … and in stronger and more collaborative leadership at the school level. At the same time, the Benwood Initiative was buoyed by better labor-management relations and a host of other reform efforts at the district level."
These findings have implications for other districts looking to turn around low-performing schools—of which there are many in the era of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. |
| PEF Names Director of Development and External Relations - (03/27/2008) | Christa Payne brings energy and enthusiasm to newly-established position. The Public Education Foundation has named Christa S. Payne as Director of Development and External Relations. Ms. Payne will direct the Foundation's fundraising efforts, including the creation of a long-range development plan. |
| More Hamilton County Graduates Enrolling in College - (03/24/2008) | Seventy-three percent of Hamilton County's May, 2007 graduates enrolled in college during the fall of 2007. This number is up from 70% in 2006 and 69% in 2005. Of these students, the percentage enrolling in four-year colleges rose from 57% in 2006 to 62% in 2007. Click the link to view the data in detail, including a map showing where graduates of the Class of 2007 went to college. |
| PEF's Debra Vaughan on "Building a Data Culture" - (02/15/2008) | Voices in Urban Eduation, Annenberg Institute for School Reform
In this article, Debra Vaughan (PEF's Director of Data and Research) and Kirk Kelly (HCDE's Director of Accountability and Testing) discuss how the school district and the Foundation are working together to promote the use of quality data in decision-making. Thanks to the Annenberg Institute for School Reform for granting permission to reprint Deb's article on this web site. |
| Hamilton County Featured on Front Page of New York Times - (01/17/2008) | In this article, "Urban Schools Aiming Higher Than Diploma," PEF President Dan Challener joins other experts in discussing how high schools must reinvent themselves so that all students are prepared for college. Dan reflects on the "transformational change" brought on by the School Board's decision to grant a single, college-prep diploma for all Hamilton County graduates. |
| Schools Make the Grade - (08/07/2007) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
85% of Hamilton County Schools make adequate yearly progress and are in good standing under No Child Left Behind guidelines. |
| Poll says residents support local high school reform efforts - (03/19/2006) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
By Beverly A. Carroll Staff Writer Nine out of 10 Hamilton County residents who responded to a Washington, D.C., telephone poll said high school reform requires the support of the entire community, survey results show. Four out of five people said failing high schools cannot get better by themselves. "That really does signal a change in attitude and awareness," said Connie Warren, senior program director for Carnegie Corp. of New York, a group funding high school reform throughout the country, including Hamilton County. "People are starting to understand that education is a community institution that requires multiple partners in the business and civic communities and from grass-roots parents groups," she said. |
| Better scores across the board - (07/17/2005) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
If anything should disprove the criticism heaped so relentlessly, recklessly and unjustifiably on the county school system by County Commissioners Curtis Adams and Fred Skillern, it is the steady, dramatic improvement of the system"s students across the board in the state"s TCAP achievement scores. |
| Great gains by local students! - (07/16/2005) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
With Hamilton County schoolchildren, their teachers, administrators, parents, a variety of supporting foundations and others making prodigious efforts to improve local educational opportunities and student achievement, there is great new proof that their efforts are succeeding. |
| Achievement gap narrows - (07/15/2005) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Student achievement improved for all Hamilton County students for the third straight year, and the performance gap between poor and more affluent students narrowed, according to 2005 test data released Thursday. |
| Prepping for Higher Ed - (06/03/2005) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Seventy-one percent of last year"s Hamilton County Schools" high school graduates pursued degrees at 122 colleges in 30 states, figures from the Public Education Foundation show. |
| Another Boost For Our Students - (03/10/2005) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Times Editoral: Now another big opportunity boost is coming for Hamilton County youngsters in our middle schools. Itís a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Education Association Foundation, in concert with the Hamilton County Education Association |
| Middle Schools Get Grant - (03/09/2005) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Leaders of the National Education Association Foundation announced Tuesday they have awarded their largest grant to Hamilton County for improving middle schools |
| A Bridge To Close The Gap - (03/09/2005) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Free Press Editorial: Hamilton County Schools have successful reform initiatives under way at both the elementary and high school levels. Now the system is going to bridge the two with a middle-school improvement program. |
| For Progress In Local schools - (02/07/2005) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Higher standardized test scores and higher rates of students being promoted from the ninth to the 10th grade are evidence that the generous gifts from the Carnegie Corp. of New York and the Public Education Foundation are making a difference. |
| Carnegie Leader Hails Reform - (02/04/2005) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
The president of Carnegie Corp. of New York came to Chattanooga on Thursday to celebrate reform -- funded by Carnegie -- in Hamilton Countyís 17 high schools. |
| Local Schools Score Higher than State - (01/13/2005) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Hamilton County elementary and middle school students are learning more than the state standard in reading and math, and high school students rank at the top in writing, according to tests that measure how much students learn from year to year. |
| Adult School Hails First Graduates - (12/14/2004) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
'This is to all the people who didn't think we would amount to anything,' said Ash-Lee Henderson, a member of the first graduating class of Hamilton County's first adult high school. |
| Rising Scores in County Schools - (11/17/2004) | Chattanooga Times Free Press Editorial
Test scores improved across the board from 2003 to 2004 scores in all categories and among all ethnic groups and all special education groups in the K-8 grades tested. |
| Budget Limits Slow School Reform - (10/10/2004) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Plans to expand East Ridge High School's construction career academy were shelved this year after schools officials' bid for additional funding for staffing and facilities improvements failed. |
| When Student Achievement Rises - (09/05/2004) | Chattanooga Times Free Press Editorial
The growing recognition of rising achievement levels in the city's Benwood schools, and the report on this year's scores on SAT college entrance exams underscore the value of investing the resources needed to lift achievement in schools that often are dismissed disdainfully as 'low-performing.' |
| Benwood Schools Lauded in Report - (09/01/2004) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
In a report to Congress last week, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige highlighted the partnership between Hamilton County Schools, the Benwood, Public Education and Weldon F. Osborne foundations and the city of Chattanooga to promote recruiting, training and retaining highly qualified teachers. |
| Teacher Groups Meet to Critique - (06/28/2004) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
Teachers are surrounded by people all day, but they often are alone when they might wish to share ideas and tips with other professionals on how to do their jobs better. To help teachers bridge that gap, the Public Education Foundation of Chattanooga trains educators in how to create Critical Friends Groups at their schools. |
| Hamilton Schools win 'Achievement Gap' Grant - (06/03/2004) | Chattanooga Times Free Press
The National Education Association Foundation will give five Hamilton County middle schools up to $2.5 million over the next five years to help low-income and minority pupils close an 'achievement gap' with their more affluent peers. |
| Public Voices on Education - (05/30/2004) | Chattanooga Times Free Press Editorial
Community residents understandably rank public education as the top issue currently confronting Hamilton County. They're also willing to support a tax increase to underwrite improvements in public schools — if the increase were specifically directed toward improvements in the education system here. |
| A Chance to be Heard on Schools - (04/21/2003) | Chattanooga Times Free Press Editorial
The Public Education Foundation and the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga are working together to provide a forum in which residents of all ages and interests can help create a blueprint for improved teacher quality in Hamilton County Schools. |
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Public Education
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100 East Tenth Street
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 | I can’t imagine what new principals ... | | ... did in the past before PEF began supporting these programs. I hope that PEF will continue to provide these types of support programs for many generations. Imagine the possibilities! | | Leesa Kerns | Principal, Rivermont Elementary | | | |
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