Newsletter
Welcome to KeyNotes!
KeyNotes is PEF's brief monthly report on what's happening in Hamilton County school reform - progress, problems, and keys to success. Visit our archives of previous articles below, and please sign up in the box to the right to get regular updates delivered right to your inbox.
Once the wrapping paper is recycled and you’re down to turkey leftovers, Christmas break might just be THE best time to put together your Fund for Teachers proposal.
Being a 2010 Passport Scholar has made a real difference in the life of East Ridge High senior Ja'Keena Dillard.
We interviewed Taralyn Wiley – a young woman who has overcome some very serious hurdles to become a highly successful student at Red Bank High School.
It’s a win-win situation. High school counselors and college advisors want to know about every good opportunity for their students, and Volkswagen is looking for a rich applicant pool of students with solid math skills.
If you or someone you know is interested in becoming a math or science teacher, TEACH/Here is the way to do it!
Teachers, we hope you’re planning your Fund for Teachers proposal! Join us here at PEF (100 East 10th Street) for an information session Thursday, November 17, 4-6 pm.
Too often, students who enter college do not stay to complete a degree. This is true for four-year colleges, but it’s an even bigger problem at community colleges. Nationally, fewer than 25% of students at public two-year institutions complete a degree or certificate within 3 years of enrolling. SOAR aims to address that problem.
A teacher who has hands-on experience with his or her subject matter will be able to make classroom instruction more engaging and relevant for students. Based on this conviction, PEF and HCDE have partnered with a national organization, Fund for Teachers...
Many thanks to BI-LO Charities for their recent contribution to the College Bound! public information campaign featuring billboards of Hamilton County graduates who are bound for college.
Join the community conversation about Science Technology Engineering and Math! ...TSIN recently issued an RFP for an allotment of $1.85 million for the establishment of at least two East or West Tennessee STEM Hubs and Platform Schools. ...As a group, we want to design a rich, comprehensive STEM program serving the entire region, and for this we need your input.
A good time was had by all as students at Rivermont Elementary showed off their high-tech new tools on Tuesday, October 4. Thanks to a generous grant from the Leonore Annenberg School Fund for Children, Rivermont was awarded $100,000 to upgrade its library space – formerly known as “the cave.”
Thirty writing teachers from Benwood schools met last week to get pumped and get pointers (more) on helping their students improve writing skills.
PEF Volunteer Coordinator Kate Skonberg helped coordinate a team of First Tennessee volunteers to tackle some stubborn weeds, cluttered closets and fingerprinted walls at East Lake Elementary last week as part of the United Way Day of Caring.
It was both a celebration and a work day as 140 middle school science, math, social studies and literacy teachers and principals met on Tuesday, September 13th to review data from the EXPLORE exam, which is an 8th grade precursor to the ACT college-readiness exam.
It's always useful to consider thought-provoking ideas, so head to the Tivoli next Tuesday evening at 7:00 p.m. to hear education reformer Michelle Rhee.
Middle schools around Hamilton County are taking a wonderful new approach to teaching reading and writing.
Once again this year we are privileged to feature some of Hamilton County's outstanding graduates as they head off to colleges here and around the country.
This week, as children wearing backpacks reappear on our sidewalks and yellow busses reappear on our roads, a lot of people will wonder how our students are doing, especially since Tennessee raised standards and made the state tests a lot tougher last year.
We like innovation! So much so that we’ve created a small fund to help teachers who want to establish innovative and engaging classroom experiences for their students. This year, ten PEF Jane Harbaugh innovation grants have been awarded.
PEF Volunteer Coordinator Kate Skonberg is busily putting together training to prepare volunteers to help college advisors in the fall.
PEF has the best of both worlds: We have a new Director of Finance and Operations, Brent Goldberg, while our former Director, Sandra Blankenship, has agreed to stay on part-time as Human Resources Administrator.
Teaching is tough! Especially in high-poverty schools, especially the first year. Many new teachers struggle and simply give up after a year or two. Thanks to PEF’s Benwood Director Clara Sale-Davis and her New Teacher Network, beginning teachers in Benwood schools are offered a network of support and advice that helps them succeed.
PEF’s annual Report to Investors is fresh off the press!
We're pleased to announce the graduation of school leaders who have completed the first year of Principal Leadership Academy and the TWELFTH year of Leadership Fellows.
Our annual fund campaign has only one more month to go, and to celebrate we're offering a reward for those who contribute in these final weeks (a reward besides the good feeling you get from helping us support schools, that is!)
The Leonore Annenberg College Scholarship Fund, through a partnership with PEF, has awarded an extraordinary, all-expenses-paid scholarship to two outstanding local students: Matthew Heinichen of Signal Mountain Middle/High and Alexandria Oviatt of Red Bank High School.
Good afternoon. Mr. Costa, thank you for such a wonderful introduction. I will do my best to live up to it.
Unum Executive Vice President and PLA mentor Bob Best's speaking notes about the Principal Leadership Academy.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today about the enriching learning opportunity I have been afforded as a member of the first class in the Principal’s Leadership Academy.
PEF has received $1 million from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission for SOAR - Student Opportunities, Access and Retention. SOAR will help boost college completion rates for Hamilton County students who enroll in Chattanooga State Community College with plans to move on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) for completion of a 4-year bachelor’s degree.
Governor Haslam was looking for a great teacher to feature in his State of the State address, and he found one in Elaine Harper, a Red Bank High science teacher who was one of the first to be highlighted in PEF's Excellent Teacher campaign.
Thanks to a grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, the Public Education Foundation has recently hired a volunteer coordinator, Kate Skonberg, to assist college advisors as they help high school students navigate the college application process.
No wonder hits on our website are up! In August, American Public Media reporter Emily Hanford produced a one-hour radio documentary called Testing Teachers in which she described reform work of the local Benwood Initiative ...
Over PEF’s twenty years of working with teachers and school leaders, we have discovered that there are excellent teachers in every school in Hamilton County. ... Over the last eighteen months, we’ve tried to highlight some of these teachers, and we have four stories that we have yet to share with our readers.
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.
Listen in to WUTC (88.1 FM) on Sunday, November 21 from 12-2 to hear an interesting documentary on teacher quality that features the local Benwood Initiative. American RadioWorks reporter Emily Hanford spent several days in Chattanooga last year as part of a one-hour program focused on the essential question of whether outstanding teachers are “born,” or if they can be “made” through training and professional development.
The Benwood Initiative seems to pop up in every national debate about what works in education reform. This local initiative to improve elementary education has been featured in a number of different media outlets, touted by the U.S. Department of Education, and now, highlighted in a report by American RadioWorks reporter Emily Hanford.
October has seen the launch of the College Bound! campaign – a multimedia campaign to highlight successes in Hamilton County schools and to help build a college-going culture in our school district.
EPEF has just announced grant awards for 37 Hamilton County public schools to develop or continue educator book clubs. These funds will purchase books that groups of educators (and in some cases, students) will read and discuss in an effort to hone skills for school leadership and improvement. These grants are generous funded by an anonymous donor with a passion for leadership and reading.
TEACH/Here, an innovative teacher residency initiative that is preparing highly skilled math and science teachers for hard-to-fill positions in Knox and Hamilton County schools, recently announced a $154,000 grant from AmeriCorps, through Volunteer Tennessee, to support training and stipends for participants. In addition, a three-year $415,000 grant from an anonymous local donor will help support the 18 resident teachers and their experienced mentor partners.
If you love to teach science, but you’re scheduled to teach reading, you can solve the dilemma by teaching your students to read about science. That’s what Michelle Lowe does in her 2nd grade class at Wallace A. Smith Elementary school.
Sixty Hamilton County high school students ventured to Sewanee, University of the South on Thursday, July 29 for Camp College, a 2 ½ day workshop that offered intensive, hands-on help in navigating the complicated college application process.
The state has established cut scores for tests taken last spring – the first with new standards in place. As promised, the benchmark for passing the test (scoring “proficient”) has been set at a much higher level than before, which means that the percentage of students considered proficient will be significantly lower than in past years.
Seven 10th grade girls have recently embarked upon exciting summer enrichment programs as Passport Scholars through the Public Education Foundation.
Dr. Godfrey Saunders has been named director of the Principal Leadership Academy, a joint effort to train aspiring Hamilton County schools’ principals. The Academy, which launches this month, is the outcome of a partnership among the Hamilton County Department of Education, the Public Education Foundation (PEF), the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Rode a bus up Monteagle Mountain with a bunch of 8th graders. Tried to interview them. Excited kids. Loud bus. Swaying bus. Lotsa bunny ears held on the backs of interviewees’ heads by fellow passengers. Excellent trip.
Kids used to get in trouble for talking in class. Not so if one’s teacher is Erica Schmidt. Schmidt’s students at Tyner Middle Academy can frequently be found talking to their neighbors – though there’s no time for idle gossip.
The Public Education Foundation, through the Jane Harbaugh Teacher Innovation Fund, has recently announced $7000 in awards to groups of innovative educators at eight schools in Hamilton County.
By Communications Director Frances Haman-Prewitt: I never expected to hear it – and it happened twice in one week!
The Leonore Annenberg Scholarship and School Funds have made three significant grants to Hamilton County this spring: the Leonore Annenberg College Scholarship Fund has granted a remarkable all-expense-paid scholarship to Red Bank High junior Brooke Reed to select and attend the college of her choice.
A 10-minute interview with PEF President Dan Challener on Race to the Top.
A two-minute version of PEF President Dan Challener's interview about Race to the Top.
The Public Education Foundation is pleased to offer to classroom teachers small grants of up to $1,000 for innovative student learning projects. The goal is to encourage creative ways to engage students and to spur teacher collaboration.
Sixty-five 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.
Chef Leon Rice looked at me – very politely – as if I were crazy. I had asked him how he teaches higher-level thinking skills to his students in the culinary arts academy at Brainerd High School. “Running a restaurant is all about problem-solving,” explained Rice. “Dealing with customers, adjusting for equipment that malfunctions, developing a business plan that keeps the restaurant paying for itself…it’s all hands-on, applied knowledge that teaches real world skills in leadership and decision-making.”
April 16 is the deadline for applicants who are interested in joining TEACH/Here, an innovative teacher residency program that will recruit and train highly qualified math and science teachers for hard-to-fill positions in Knox and Hamilton County schools.
It was agonizing. Third-grade teacher Rhonda Lehman-Fraley started reading a poem about a squished squirrel, got us all interested, and then stopped - right in the middle.
Both Unum and Joe Davenport of Pointer Management have recently stepped up to provide major contributions for the new Principal Leadership Academy that is being created through a partnership between Hamilton County schools, PEF, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and UTC.
Hamilton County's 8th grade EXPLORE test results are in, and this year the district is beating the national average in every category!
Stand and CreateHere are pleased to announce our participation in the Refresh Project, a vetting process for innovative ideas sponsored by Pepsi and GOOD.
Ten days ago, Governor Bredesen signed into law far-reaching changes that the General Assembly had approved only a few hours earlier.
When asked about his motivations and strategies as an educator, Paulson cites Aldous Huxley (Brave New World) and George Orwell (1984) and their predictions about the effects of technology on our society.
In Danielle Lillie’s fifth grade class at Red Bank Elementary, at any given moment one might find teacher and students standing on their chairs, waving their arms and counting loudly by threes or sevens, or chanting about the workings of the digestive system.
For seven years, our schools and our students posted steady gains. Year after year, more and more of our students met state proficiency standards in math and reading.
Hands were flying the whole time we were in her classroom, with students so eager to participate that they could hardly sit still - a sure sign of an engaged class.
Graduates from Hamilton County public schools are qualified for any college, including those ranked among the top 100 by U.S. News and World Report. They just need determination, clear goals, to work hard and dream big.
You expect to find great teachers in their classrooms, but for the month of October, you can also find them in area BI-LO stores.
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and Electric Motor Sales & Supply, Inc. have recently contributed $5,000 each to help assistant principals prepare to move into the principal’s position at a Hamilton County school.
Dustin is one of many excellent teachers in Hamilton County schools. This year, PEF will be featuring 20 teachers who represent the many excellent teachers hard at work in every school in the district.
Since 2004, through the work of PEF, the College Access Center and other partners, the number of May graduates from Hamilton County schools enrolling in college the following fall has increased by 15%.
PEF and the Hamilton County Department of Education have formed a new partnership with the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Knox County schools to create a teacher residency program called Teach/Here.
Does a person need a college degree to become a firefighter?
More students are graduating! Tennesseans should be very pleased to learn that we have earned the number one ranking in a Johns Hopkins University report on states with the greatest gains in high school graduation rates.
Public Education Foundation President Dan Challener has accepted an invitation to serve on the newly established Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) steering committee which is being chaired by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
PEF has just released its latest video podcast, School of Second Chances. Featuring students and administrators from Hamilton County’s adult high school, this story is heart-warming and inspiring.
Why is a drop in test scores good news? Because the drop will reflect the state's adoption of much higher standards for students in our public schools.
A recent longitudinal study by MDRC shows that career academies are effective at improving earnings for participants, especially for young men.
Congratulations are in order! For the first time since implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2003, East Lake and Orchard Knob Elementary schools have moved into "Good Standing".
This work in math is modeled after on-going efforts to improve literacy. That work has been successful, so we can expect math scores to start moving up soon!
The Benwood Initiative, a partnership between Hamilton County schools, the Benwood Foundation and the Public Education Foundation, has seen great success in boosting test scores in eight high-poverty urban elementary schools.
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.
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.