Soddy-Daisy’s 9th-grade academy funded by Carnegie Corp. money

By Beverly A. Carroll Staff Writer

Veteran educators Linda Preston and Jerry McAfee said a Carnegie Corp. grant for high school reform improved their teaching and boosted student academic performance, attendance and behavior at Soddy-Daisy High School.

'It’s made me a better teacher,' said Mr. McAfee, a world history teacher for 11 years. 'I’ve become more focused on the individual student, and I’ve had to develop different strategies that are more interactive.'

Hamilton County Schools received a five-year, $8 million grant from Carnegie Corp. of New York. Combined with a $6 million matching grant from the Public Education Foundation of Chattanooga, the money has paid for teacher training and research to develop reforms tailored to each of the district’s 17 high schools. The reform effort is in its fourth year.

Each high school is in different stages of developing career academies, the smaller, school within-a-school programs that combine college preparatory classes with career-related themes.

Soddy-Daisy High did not move as quickly as some other high schools in the reform program because it already was a successful school, said Charlene Becker, Hamilton County director of secondary instruction.    'Their students were being well served,' Ms. Becker said. 'But when they started looking at data in more detail, they saw where they needed work.' Soddy-Daisy administrators and teachers last year planned to create a ninth-grade academy. Research shows that students who drop out of high school begin to have trouble in the freshman year.

'The transition from middle to high school was like throwing them into the deep end of the pool without any life support,' Ms. Preston said. 'Now we help them wade into the pool so they are ready when they get to the deep end.'

Soddy-Daisy administrators have data to show effectiveness of their new approach. Attendance improved in the first semester this year compared to the same period last year. And the number of ninth-graders who received discipline referrals dropped from 352 in the first semester last year to 161 in the first semester of this year, records show.

Ninth-graders stay in the same wing of the school for most of their classes, which has helped reduce the number of behavior problems, said Marilyn Spencer, an English teacher. With students in the same area, their teachers see them almost all day.    'They are not as exposed to the upper classmen,' Ms. Spencer said.
The freshmen eat lunch and take some electives, such as computer keyboarding, with upper classmen.

A team teaching concept personalized student instruction. Teachers now share schedules, avoid piling on tests and work together to develop lesson plans.    'If (a student) is having a problem in math, it’s likely that (he or she) is having a problem in science or English,' Ms. Preston said. 'Now we have the opportunity to talk with the other teachers and ask, ‘Is he having a problem in your class,’ or ‘What have you tried with this student that worked?’ '

E-mail Beverly A. Carroll at bcarroll@timesfreepress.com