College Access News
A proposed high-tech Hamilton County high school could hold 300 students on the campus of Chattanooga State Community College. The county aims to apply for about $1.8 million in state grant funding to open a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, school here next fall. At a meeting Thursday night, organizers said they plan to put the new STEM school in part of the former Olan Mills building next to the Chattanooga State campus and bought by the school in 2010.
Hamilton County Schools improved its graduation rate, along with elementary test scores for reading, math, science and social studies, but high school test scores are down, according to the latest state report card. The county’s overall graduation rate increased to 81.7 percent, up from 80.2 percent in 2010 and 70.9 percent in 2009.
Bi-Lo handed out more than $321,000 to Chattanooga-area charities Thursday, after its annual golf tournament brought in $4.68 million from vendors and local businesses. “Chattanooga is a very important market for us,” said Michael Byars, president and CEO. The largest gift was a donation of $101,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, followed by a $27,000 gift to the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Public Education Fund and a $20,000 gift to Chattanooga Room in the Inn.
A group of girls gathered Thursday at the Community Foundation on Market Street and showed off their work. Japanese characters. Pictures of tart desserts and stuffed chicken. Pennsylvania State University memorabilia. ...The Passport Scholars Program, operated by the Public Education Foundation, selected nine sophomores from public schools to go to a summer enrichment program of their choosing. The students were selected from about 40 applicants based on their GPA and other academic qualifiers, and each girl had to show that she couldn’t go to a program like this on her own.
As more universities consider raising admission standards in an effort to increase graduation rates, high school counselors face the challenge of making sure their students can keep up. Tennessee ranked 49th out of 50 states in high school students’ average composite ACT score this year. The national average was 21.1 while Tennessee’s was 19.5. High school counselors say they have to encourage their students to do better on the exam.
For the third straight year, the Public Education Foundation is rolling out a billboard campaign to encourage students of Hamilton County Schools to think seriously about continuing on to college after graduating.
Students from area high schools will be featured on 20 billboards across the county, declaring where they are bound for college, along with their local alma mater. Six of the billboards went up in August. The remaining signs will be placed during September and October.
Center for Creative Arts college advisor Stacy Lightfoot is being recognized for her efforts to change lives by helping students further their education through the recently bestowed 2011 Counselors that Change Lives Award. “I love the point where I’m opening up a student to a new opportunity,” said Lightfoot. “I want to expose students to post-secondary options.”
Once his face is glued onto a giant billboard close to downtown, Terence Kelley doesn’t think his college years will have much room for error. “It actually motivated me, just the fact that I’m going to be seen on the billboard,” Kelley said. “I can’t slack or disappoint anyone.” The Public Education Foundation and Hamilton County Schools are pointing to Kelley and other high school graduates as education success stories by putting their faces on billboards throughout the county.
Listed to WGOW's "Be True to Your School" show and hear some of our Hamilton County grads.
Tennessee students who took the 2011 ACT college entrance exam continued a downward trend and finished second-to-last in the nation in overall scores. Results also show fewer of this year’s seniors will be prepared to take college classes next year, according to an ACT college and career readiness report released Wednesday.
Slight increases in ACT test scores for Hamilton County students pleased local education administrators, despite remaining below both state and national averages. While school-by-school data is not yet available, students who took the standardized test in Hamilton County public schools averaged a score of 18.7, bringing the measure up from 18.6 in 2010.
Less than a week away from her first day of college, Megan Collyer has already made a solid dent in her to-do list — and in her stress level. ...All that comes after spending Wednesday with college mentors and about 60 other Hamilton County freshmen in the pilot class of a college retention program called SOAR, for Student Opportunities, Access and Retention.
The Public Education Foundation received a $1 million grant from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission for the project, which aims to help first-generation college students complete two years at the community college before moving on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to finish their four-year degrees.
The Leonore Annenberg Scholarship and School Funds project announced on Friday that it has awarded $2,600,000 in grants to a total of 22 elementary schools, artists, and high school students. Two Hamilton County students and two Hamilton County schools were named recipients of the grants.
School may be out for summer, but Public Education Foundation volunteer coordinator Kate Skonberg is working to recruit volunteers to assist 16 area Hamilton County public high schools’ college advisors. “The nutshell of this program is it’s an easy way to make a great impact in your community,” said Skonberg.
In the national race to raise high school graduation rates, Tennessee and Georgia have posted some of the best and worst numbers in the nation, respectively. Tennessee‟s graduation rate increased by 20 percentage points between 1998 and 2008 — a bigger improvement than any state in the country, according to the Diplomas Count report, released this week by Editorial Projects in Education.
At a time when educators and business leaders are calling for graduates to be better prepared for life after high school, the ACT scores at 26 of 31 regional high schools went down in 2010, records show. The average decline of about one point in Southeast Tennessee high schools mirrors the decline at the state level. The top ACT score is 36. The region’s average in 2010 was 18.4, about one point behind the state average of 19.6.
Signal Mountain High School junior Matthew Heinichen is one of two students in Hamilton County to be named a recipient of the Leonore Annenberg College Scholarship...“This opportunity exists because of Dr. Scales’ willingness to partner with the Public Education Foundation and Annenberg Foundation to make sure these students have the opportunities they deserve,” said Dan Challener, president of the Public Education Foundation.
For the past two years, about 72 percent of graduates have gone on to start college, according to Dan Challener, president of the Public Education Foundation. “Its increasingly clear that an awful lot of jobs require more and more education,” Challener said.
Red Bank High School junior Alexandria Oviatt is one of two students in Hamilton County to be named a recipient of the Leonore Annenberg College Scholarship...College advisors with the Public Education Foundation worked to identify eligible students in Hamilton County and selected the most promising to be considered for the award by the Philadelphia-based selection committee.
...Gov. Bill Haslam on Tuesday downplayed concerns about the impact on class size, telling student leaders that teacher quality ultimately matters more. ... Public Education Foundation President Dan Challener, whose group works to strengthen Hamilton County’s public schools, said “teacher quality is the single most powerful force for improving student achievement. Great teachers make a great difference.” But Challener noted that “it’s also true that every time we increase class size, we make it harder and harder for all teachers, even the great ones, to get the results we need. And I think that’s especially true for teachers working in high poverty schools.”
If the region’s class of 2010 reduced its number of dropouts by half, those students collectively would earn $9.9 million more in an average year than they would without diplomas, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington, D.C.-based education advocacy organization.
East Ridge High School students and teachers are working to illuminate efficient homemade solar energy panels, having already completed several prototypes...Just as their funding is running dry, they believe they may have found the perfect design. Only $40 of a $1,000 grant received in the fall of 2009 from the Public Education Foundation remains.
With a $1 million grant from the state, the Public Education Foundation is launching a college mentor program for struggling high school students, officials announced Thursday. SOAR, funded by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, will pair college students with graduating high schoolers who plan to attend Chattanooga State Community College and transfer to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Thanks to a generous grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, the Public Education Foundation will boost college access and success efforts in Hamilton County public schools. Volunteer Coordinator Kate Skonberg has begun recruiting adults to assist college advisors as they help high school students navigate the college application process.
Peer pressure is rampant in the senior class at Sale Creek High School. But rather than squelching it, administrators hope it spreads. Following the example of last year’s seniors, the class of 2011 has started an Every Student Will Graduate campaign that aims to ensure all 50 seniors earn a diploma by May.
More than one in three Hamilton County Schools graduates who attend Chattanooga State Community College must take remedial courses. Nearly 40 percent of UTC’s local first-time freshmen need the same.
Taxpayers in Tennessee and Georgia are spending more than $100 million a year supporting college students who drop out in their freshman year, according to a new study of state and federal funding of four-year colleges.
Tennessee is leading the charge in raising the nation’s graduation rate, increasing its own number more than 15 percentage points from 2002 to 2008.
The Public Education Foundation (PEF) announced Monday that it has received checks totaling $11,000 from BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and an anonymous donor to be used in the purchase of laptop computers for 16 college advisors who work in Hamilton County high schools.
On November 11th, BI-LO Charities gave its first-ever contribution to the Public Education Foundation to support the College Bound! campaign featuring Hamilton County graduates who have enrolled in colleges around the country.
The Tennessee College Access and Success Conference will be held at the Chattanoogan on Thursday and Friday. The conference is an annual event which will convene a record 350 college admissions professionals, school counselors, college advisors and representatives of community-based organization dedicated to helping students achieve college success.
Seven 11th grade girls will be sharing their summer experiences spent as Passport Scholars through the Public Education Foundation on Thursday, 6 p.m. at the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, 1270 Market St. Each scholar has been asked to create a visual display and write an essay about her experiences.
A rotating series of billboards featuring 17 Hamilton County high school graduates from the class of 2010— one from each local high school — holding a diploma and wearing a shirt proclaiming the college they now attend will remain on view through the end of the year. They are more than a salute to the ability of each of the students pictured. They are testament to the broader success that all the high schools here have in preparing so many students for college.
School officials partnered with the Public Education Foundation and BI-LO for their "College Bound" campaign. The campaign highlights 17 recent graduates through a series of billboards, life-sized displays in BI-LO stores and a website. The program also features students on a Facebook page.
Daryl Massey, Bi-Lo's District Manager, says "as corporate citizens we try to give back to the community and we've found that education is just a win win so we're trying to put the message about a lot of the positive things that's going on in the Hamilton County School System." Bi-Lo's new partnership centers around 17 success stories. "College Bound" highlights one student from every county high school now attending college.
Seventeen Hamilton County high school graduates — one from each local high school — have been blown up larger-than-life and will be featured on the giant advertisements around the county for the next three months.
Hamilton County Schools has partnered with the Public Education Foundation and Bi-lo, in hopes of sending more students to college.
After the graduation rate in Hamilton County dipped to 70.9 percent in 2009 — down 4.2 percent from 2007 — school officials are expecting a significant jump in the district’s graduation rate this year as a result of new programs and initiatives. Based on school records, the district has projected the 2009/2010 graduation rate to have increased by more than 5 percent — the largest single increase in five years.
Seven local 10th grade girls were named Passport Scholars through the Public Education Foundation. As part of PEF’s college access initiative, Passport Scholars provides scholarships for those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to attend programs like the Summer Science and Engineering Program at Smith College or the Teton Science School at Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.
MSNBC.com reprint of Times Free Press article
Brooke Reed’s shoulders are feeling a little lighter these days as she shops for colleges without worrying about a possible deal-breaker: the price tag. The Red Bank High School junior recently won the Leonore Annenberg College Scholarship, a four-year, all expenses-paid scholarship that just a handful of students nationwide receive. The award will cover tuition and fees, room and board, a laptop and a stipend to the college or university of her choice beginning in the fall of 2011.
The announcer said out loud, "extraordinary achievement, nobile character, drive to succeed." To any one who knows Red Bank junior Brooke Reed, that's her. And it's exactly why she's Hamilton County's first Leonore Annenberg college scholarship award winner. Four years all expenses paid, to the school of her choice.
170 eighth graders at Brown Middle School will got on college tours to Covenant, Lee, Sewanee and Tennessee Wesleyan, on Tuesday, April 27...
Thirteen more Hamilton County high school graduates decided to go on to college in 2009 over the previous year, officials announced Wednesday. The 72 percent college bound rate is up from 70 percent in 2008, but hasn’t fully recovered after dropping from 73 percent in 2007, records show.
The Hamilton County Department of Education and the Public Education Foundation released data on Tuesday on the number of May, 2009 Hamilton County public school graduates who enrolled in college for the fall of 2009. 1,522 students enrolled in 146 public and private colleges and universities around the country. This number represents 72% of the May graduating class, and is up from 2008, when 70% (1509 students) enrolled in college.
65 high school seniors, their parents and their mentors attended a celebration honoring their commitments to college enrollment at a banquet on Tuesday evening, April 13, at Loose Cannon Art and Events. These students have been participating in the College Access Mentoring program conducted by the Hamilton County Department of Education and the Public Education Foundation.
The 2009 Tennessee College Access and Success conference will be held in Chattanooga on Monday and Tuesday at the Chattanoogan. ... Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Jim Applegate, senior vice president for Program Development of the Lumina Foundation for Education, will serve as the keynote speakers to open and close the event.
Seeing her father lose his job and her mother working in a carpet mill was all the encouragement Rosario Reyna needed to know she should go to college. “I knew I needed to better myself in order to be able to help them later on in life,” said the 18-year-old first-generation college student from Calhoun, Ga.
Math teachers at three high schools will be trained on how to administer nationally recognized benchmark assessments and use those results to refine instruction, thanks to a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation...The Public Education Foundation will partner with the district on implementation of the grant.
The Public Education Foundation has announced a recent merger with the local College Access Center. “This merger is just common sense,” said PEF President Dan Challener. “PEF’s College Access Initiative grew out of our high school reform work and has become a major focus for us. As part of that, we’ve been working so closely with the College Access Center over the last few years that it’s hard to draw a line between our work and theirs.”
NewsChannel 9
For some high school students, going to college isn't part of their plans. But one program in Chattanooga is trying to change that.
LaJarvis Russell, a rising Senior at Ooltewah High School said he "wasn't really interested in going to college because I want to go to cooking school. But it's still a good opportunity to go make sure, see if I was missing anything in the college life."
Chattanoogan.com
Through the Public Education Foundation and the College Access Center, over 100 rising high school seniors are participating in a college-mentoring program funded by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission ... it offers guidance and support to students who have grades and skills that make them eligible for higher education, but who are uncertain of their opportunities and qualifications. Many of them will be the first generation in their families to attend college.
Students will be able to ask questions such as, "Does a person need a college degree to become a firefighter?" "It helps a lot," says Captain Andre' Hicks of the Chattanooga Fire Department.
Chattanoogan.com
Over 100 rising high school juniors are expected to attend the first College Bonanza at UTC on Tuesday from 9:15 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Students will hear a panel of representatives from various nearby colleges, tour the UTC campus, and learn about applying for admission and financial aid.
In the afternoon, they will meet their mentors – local college students who graduated from targeted Hamilton County high schools and can give peer-to-peer advice on getting into and staying in college.
Chattanoogan.com
The Public Education Foundation announced two new grants to supplement work already in progress at Hamilton County schools. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission has awarded $155,000 over two years to PEF to establish a peer mentoring program for targeted high school juniors at Ooltewah High, Hixson High, Central High and Howard School of Academics and Technology. ... This program aims to reach beyond students who are highly likely to go to college and add to their ranks students from low-income families or with lower grades or test scores who might need extra help to successfully realize their hopes of going to college.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
After scoring a 17 on the ACT, Khala Stewart didn't think she would qualify for a college scholarship, she said. Then she attended the Infinite Scholars Scholarship Fair hosted Wednesday by the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga, at which Stillman College representatives considered her 3.1 grade-point average and offered her $3,500. ... Bi-Lo stores, Hamilton County Schools and the College Access Center all helped to sponsor the fair, Urban League officials said
Chattanooga Times Free Press
It is almost the halfway point of the school year, and while thoughts of the future are just starting to creep into the minds of area high school juniors, their senior counterparts have had a year to stress out. To alleviate some of the pressure they face during these last months, college advisors have been placed in many area schools by the College Access Center, a Chattanooga-based nonprofit that helps students plan for their future education.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
It's fall break for Hamilton County students, so most kids in Stephen Coleman's Alton Park neighborhood are kicking back to enjoy a day free of books, learning and responsibility. But Mr. Coleman isn't like most children.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Don't be afraid to raise standards. That was the advice given Tuesday by Dan Challener, president of Chattanooga's Public Education Foundation, to a group of Washington, D.C., educators.
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.
New York Times
In Chattanooga, Tenn., the schools have abolished their multitrack curriculum, which pointed only a fraction of students toward college. Every student is now on a college track. ... Those efforts, and others across the country, reflect a growing sense of urgency among educators that the primary goal of many large high schools serving low-income and urban populations — to move students toward graduation — is no longer enough. Now, educators say, even as they struggle to lift dismal high school graduation rates, they must also prepare the students for college, or some form of post-secondary school training, with the skills to succeed.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Article includes a map showing 2006 graduates' college choices.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Chattanooga Times Free Press
More Hamilton County graduates are enrolling in college
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Partnership for College Access and Success hires college students to help high school students apply for college
Chattanooga Times Free Press
More Hamilton County graduates are enrolling in college
Focus
Lumina Foundation Focus magazine features Soddy Daisy High School college access program
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.
Chattanoogan.com
Hamilton County is one of eight communities to receive a grant from the Lumina Foundation for increasing college access and student success.