July 16, 2005
Chattanooga Times Free Press
By Beverly A. Carroll and Kathleen Baydala, Staff Writers

A foundation this month will launch a multiyear, multimillion-dollar project to boost achievement in Hamilton County’s 21 middle schools and prepare students better for high school.

"We want students to be well prepared for the rigorous curriculum they will face when they get to high school," said Ismahen Kangles, a former Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts principal who now works with the Public Education Foundation.

Ms. Kangles will direct the program, the Middle Schools for a New Society Initiative.

Two foundations already have pumped millions into reform efforts in some Hamilton County elementary schools and all of its high schools.

"The Carnegie high school reform seems to be making solid gains, and the Benwood focus on literacy in elementary schools has produced solid gains," said Jack Murrah, president of the Lyndhurst Foundation, which is donating money for the middle school initiative. "The school group that had not yet been addressed by a focus was middle school."

Educators say middle school years are critical in determining high school success and whether students graduate.

The challenges facing middle school students, who are entering puberty, are unique, Ms. Kangles said.

"Kids hit changes while they are meeting different academic demands," she said. "In most of their elementary school years, they have only one teacher per grade. In middle school they begin to change classes and the curriculum is more demanding."

David Cowan, the new director of middle schools for the Hamilton County Department of Education, said students who are not ready for the jump from middle to high school often fall short of academic expectations and some drop out.

"Those kids who come to high school reading at lower-than-grade level have a terrible time succeeding academically," said Mr. Cowan, who worked for about two decades in middle schools and spent the last few years as principal of Central High School.

One of the district’s specific goals for improvement is for all eighth-graders to be reading at grade level by the time they finish middle school, he said.

The Lyndhurst grant also will target math achievement as well as school climate, or how students and parents feel about the school.

The Lyndhurst Foundation committed $250,000 to pay for the county’s 21 middle schools to draft proposals to improve student achievement. A partnership of school district administrators and Lyndhurst officials will evaluate the proposals, and then Lyndhurst officials will decide on additional funding, Mr. Murrah said.

Lyndhurst has not set a specific long-term spending limit, but Mr. Murrah said it will be a "multiyear, multimillion-dollar project."

The PEF will administer the grant money.

REFORM UNDER WAY

The Carnegie Corp. of New York gave Hamilton County $8 million four years ago for high school reform. In 2001, the local, nonprofit Benwood Foundation selected nine inner-city elementary schools to share a five-year, $5 million grant to improve reading skills. Both grants are in their last year.

The PEF administered both grants and also helped raise the $6 million match in local funds required for the Carnegie donation. The PEF also contributed $2 million to the Benwood program.

Students at the nine Benwood elementary schools have improved reading and math test scores.

Since the Carnegie effort began, the number of students moving from the ninth to 10th grade has improved. Research shows that completing the ninth grade and moving into the 10th grade is a strong predictor for earning a high school diploma in four years.

Mr. Murrah said he thinks a middle school reform effort will help maintain the momentum created by the Carnegie and Benwood programs.

A limited effort at middle school reform already is under way in five Hamilton County middle schools, officials said.

Last year, the National Education Association’s foundation awarded the district a $2.5 million, five-year grant. The NEA wanted the grant to be used to close the so-called "achievement gap" between low-income students and their wealthier counterparts.

Hamilton County chose to focus on urban, at-risk middle schools, schools Superintendent Jesse Register said.

"Middle school is a time of transition, and we were also concerned about not dropping the literacy effort started in elementary school," Dr. Register said.

Officials used the first $500,000 of the NEA grant to focus on curriculum and identify barriers to student achievement that are common to all five of the middle schools, said Reuben Justice, principal of Orchard Knob Middle School.

"One of the main problems is the turnover in administration and teachers in these schools," Mr. Justice said.

Another problem for the urban middle schools is the mobile student population, he said.

Students transfer in the middle of the year among the schools, he said. The principals are considering creating portfolios with student evaluations that would follow the student from school to school.