There were many bright spots in Hamilton County’s 2008 state report card, released November 10. Here are some highlights from schools directly affected by PEF’s partnership with the Hamilton County Department of Education:
Benwood Initiative:
- The original eight Benwood elementary schools continued to make gains in reading/language arts, with 82% of students in grades 3-5 scoring proficient or advanced. This is a significant increase from 2003, when only 57% of students scored proficient or advanced.
- Eight of the sixteen Phase II Benwood schools scored straight A’s on Tennessee’s 3 year Value-added measures.
- For more information, click Benwood Initiative.
Middle School Initiative:
- In Reading/Language Arts, 42.6% of all students tested in grades 6-8 reached advanced status.
- In math, 41.5% of all students tested in grades 6-8 scored advanced.
- These scores reflect an increase of about 5 percentage points over 2007, meeting goals for annual improvement.
- For more information, click Middle School Initiative.
High School:
- Advanced scores rose in all three Gateway subjects from 2007 to 2008:
- In English, advanced scores rose from 66.1% to 72.1%.
- In Biology, advanced scores rose from 49.5% to 56.3%.
- In Algebra, advanced scores rose from 25.9% to 31.8%.
- Though the 4-year graduation rate has dipped, this actually masks good news on the graduation front. The dip reflects a change in the way graduation statistics are calculated due to a reclassification of Hamilton County’s adult high school. According to HCDE calculations, without this change the 4-year graduation rate would have increased from 75.1% in 2007 to 76.8% in 2008. This continues an upward trend from the graduation rate of 69% in 2003.
- The news gets even better, however, when one considers the total graduation rate, including both 4-year and late graduates. (Late graduates are those who fell behind their classmates, but stayed the course to graduation.) This number has risen 28% over the last five years. For further explanation, see the story above and our latest video podcast featuring Hamilton County’s adult high school. See also High School Initiative.
This progress is strong, but there is still work to do. Math skills are still weak, the graduation rate is still too low, and ACT scores remained flat this year. In partnership with Hamilton County schools, PEF continues to work to help schools improve instruction in both math and reading, and provides opportunities for the most successful teachers and school leaders to spread their expertise to others throughout the district.
Look for more good things to come in the future.