Schools for a New Society News
Bill Kennedy, the Public Education Foundation’s director of secondary initiatives, will lead the Principal Leadership Academy on an interim basis as the board conducts a search for a permanent director.
...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.”
An innovative study of 17 schools across the country suggests that putting literacy coaches in schools can help boost students’ reading skills by as much as 32 percent over three years...The study finds that reading gains are greatest in schools where teachers receive a larger amount of coaching. It also finds that the amount of coaching that teachers receive varies widely and is influenced by an array of factors, including relationships among staff members and how teachers envision their roles.
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 county’s public school system wants to pinch pennies wherever possible, so officials are examining whether a change in schedules would save money. Hamilton County high schools now operate on a “block schedule” — four 90-minute classes every day with a new batch in the second semester, for a total of eight classes each year.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Over sandwich wraps and potato salad, Chattanooga business leaders plotted with high school principals about how to ready the next generation of local workers. After two years of partnering with Lookout Valley High School, Glenn Morris, president and CEO of M&M Industries, decided it was time for other businesses to get involved with schools.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
More Hamilton County public school students taking the ACT college entrance exam scored a 25 or better this school year than last, according to district data. About 335 students out of 3,487 who took the test between August and April scored at least a 25, which ACT officials said is competitive for most colleges and universities in the nation.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Tennessee's high school graduation rate improved more than any other state's in a new report by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. While the national high school graduation rate remained flat at about 75 percent between 2002 and 2006, the Volunteer State is one of a dozen states that made substantial gains, according to the report, released Thursday by the university's Everyone Graduates Center. “It's really a tribute to the hard work of teachers in each school in Tennessee,” said Rachel Woods, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education. “Those are the ones really making the difference.”
Chattanooga Times Free Press
...Despite the overall decrease in the graduation rate, the news from the state Report Card wasn't all bad. At 10 county high schools, the graduation rate improved last year, including at Brainerd and Howard School of Academics and Technology. ... Hamilton County's 2.5 percent drop in the overall graduation rate is somewhat misleading, administrators contend, because of a change last year in how some of the district's graduates were counted.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
This year's graduating class at Soddy-Daisy High School will be the first to participate in a new program designed to help them apply what they learn in the classroom on a yearlong project of their choosing. Administrators hope the programs will provide opportunity for students to apply their academic skills outside the classroom and get a taste of the kind of work they will do after graduation.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
More students have graduated from Hamilton County Schools each year since 2004, despite relatively flat enrollment, according to numbers released Thursday by the school system. ... "This is really good news for the kids who graduated and for the community," said Dan Challener, president of the Public Education Foundation, which jointly released Thursday's report.
Editorial, Chattanooga Times
Thirty-six students in the region have been named as semifinalists in the prestigious National Merit Scholarship Program. Their scores indicate they are among the best and brightest of their generation, and they are to be congratulated for their accomplishment. Drawing any inference other than that of personal achievement from their selection, however, is a risky enterprise.
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.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Hamilton County High School, also known as the "adult high school," successfully assists 79 students in obtaining their high school diploma.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
The Carnegie Corporation continues its support of Hamilton County High Schools, with a shift in emphasis from literacy to math.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Edna Varner invited to present testimony on No Child Left Behind
Video Link
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Sequoyah High's automotive career academy builds racing stock car
NEA Today
NEA focuses on Hamilton County
Chattanooga Times Free Press
45 HCDE students score 30 or higher on the ACT
Chattanooga Times Free Press
More HCDE students are taking AP courses as part of district focus on ‘academic rigor'
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Chattanooga Times Free Press
HCDE high school for adults gives former dropouts a second chance
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Red Bank High's Teaching Academy wins 2006 Career Academy of the Year award in San Francisco
Chattanoogan.com
Christopher Wheatley heads the Math, Science & Health academy
Teacher Magazine
Twenty years after it was shoved aside to make room for academic standards, vocational education is now something of a comback kid. Nowhere is that more evident than in southern Tennessee, where the small-school academies in one district combine academic rigor with real-world skills.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Guest editorial by Vartan Gregorian, President, Carnegie Corp. of New York
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Guest editorial by Cathy Turner, Academy Facilitator, Central High School
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Soddy-Daisyís 9th-grade academy funded by Carnegie Corp. money
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Carnegie Corp. President Vartan Gregorian visited to praise the progress in high school reform on several levels.
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.
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.
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.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Educators and construction industry professionals from as far away as Alaska are in Chattanooga to study a model construction career academy at East Ridge High School.
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.
What do you do when you can no longer be the dynamo of dixie?
By PEF President Dr. Dan Challener
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Adult School helps students who have had problems in a traditional setting
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Local instructors and Carnegie representative agree foundation funds are being used correctly.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Educational field trips are fairly commonplace for Hamilton County students. But for students in East Ridge High School's construction academy, a recent field trip offer opportunities to operate forklifts, practice welding techniques, and learn CPR.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
The Community Foundation makes a major investment in local schools by awarding the PEF a $500,000 grant to support high school reform.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
High school will focus on technology, communications and business.
The Washington Post
Teachers transfer to poorest-performing schools in Chattanooga, TN as part of an effort to raise test scores
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Five students from 17 Hamilton Country high schools recently participated in the Second Annual Hamilton County Student Speak Out forum
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Curriculum includes foreign language, global art and entertainment courses.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
School funding among topics at 2nd 'Speak Out'
PEF is a local non-profit dedicated to improving student achievement in Hamilton County Schools
Get Involved
“Due to the funds that were provided…
…for us by the Benwood Initiative, we’ve been able to provide some of the best research-based workshops for our teachers to implement reading strategies in the classroom, and we’ve established a literacy block which is two hours per day, every day, for all of our students.”
Marthel Young
Principal,
Orchard Knob Elementary