Recognizing the critical need to enhance student achievement and actively seeking avenues to energize such an effort, the Public Education Foundation (PEF) is fully focused and engaged as an advocate for the children of Chattanooga and Hamilton County. Throughout its 20-year history, PEF has fostered public and private cooperation to improve academic performance, working hand in hand with school system administrators, teachers, and business and civic leaders.
Succinctly, the mission of the PEF is to “challenge, support and improve Hamilton County public schools so that all students succeed in learning and in life.” And – that mission is becoming reality.
For everyone, quality education is the key to a better life, to greater opportunity, and to making a meaningful contribution to society. A comprehensive approach to improving public education locally has produced tangible results, and the best is yet to come. Several initiatives are vibrant, ongoing, and even expanding their scope.
“Our mission is fundamentally about increasing student achievement,” explained PEF President Dan Challener, who has headed the organization since 1999. “That is what we do. We work with schools in partnership with the school district to increase student achievement. One of the initiatives we began in 2000 is the Benwood Initiative in local elementary schools. The Executive Director of the Benwood Foundation came to me at the time when the headline in the newspaper said that Hamilton County had nine of the 20 lowest scoring schools in the state of Tennessee. Memphis has four times the number of poor children, and they had only two schools on the list. Something was wrong with those schools in Hamilton County.”
According to Challener, students need to read on grade level by 3rd grade in order to succeed in later school years. These schools were falling short on this measure, so it became a focus of the Benwood Initiative. “We looked at best practices for teachers, the skills principals need to have and other issues in productive partnership with the school district,” he said. “The focus has been on getting kids to read well by the time they are in third grade. Every one of these schools has made dramatic increases in the percentage of children reading – and these had been among the lowest in the state.”
Indeed, since 2003, students in the Benwood schools, Calvin Donaldson, Clifton Hills, East Lake, East Side, Hardy, Hillcrest, Orchard Knob, and Woodmore, have made great strides. For example, at Calvin Donaldson the percentage of third graders scoring at proficient or advanced levels in reading and language arts has increased from 56 percent to 83 percent. Hardy third graders rose from 41 percent to a startling 85 percent, and Hillcrest from 53 percent to 98 percent.
The Benwood Foundation contributed $5 million to the initial effort, while the PEF pumped in $2.5 million. Recently, Benwood committed to another five years and to expand the initiative to 16 schools. The success of the Benwood Initiative has resulted in media attention on a national level. The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) learned of the program and produced a 12-minute report on the topic which appeared on the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer in spring of 2006. A book published by the Harvard University Press mentions the Benwood Initiative extensively. Periodicals such as Education Week, Reader’s Digest, and the Washington Post have featured it as well.
“The PBS report was about partnering with the district, and we have also gotten tremendous support from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the Urban League, the Osborne Foundation, and the business community,” commented Challener. “So, this is a case of people working together to dramatically change what was going on in those schools. It has really been wonderful. On one hand, we provide additional financial resources, but on the other hand, and just as important, we also provide human resources whether that is data analysis or leadership training and coaching, and this is in partnership with the school district to achieve these kinds of gains.”
In 2007, seven of the identified Benwood schools earned ratings of “A” in reading/language arts and math on the state “value-added” assessment system (TVAAS). Five schools achieved A’s in all four TVAAS subject areas. A total of 80 percent of all third graders scored proficient or advanced in reading, a 27 point improvement over 2003 numbers. Since 2003, the percentage of Benwood teachers holding master’s degrees has increased from 36 to 47.
Exciting progress is being made at the high school level in Hamilton County as well. In 2001, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, hearing of the Benwood Initiative success, approached the PEF and the Hamilton County Schools with an invitation to apply for a grant to essentially reinvigorate public education at the secondary level.
“They asked PEF and the school system to submit a proposal for how we would transform all of our high schools over a five-year period to reflect the growing learning demands of young people for the jobs they are going to have to fill,” Challener reasoned. “Twenty school districts were initially invited. Then, 10 were asked to do full proposals, and ultimately seven of these were funded. We were one of seven sites across the country that was selected. Some of the others were big cities like San Diego, Sacramento, Boston, and Houston. We got an $8 million grant from Carnegie in 2002. We have to invest in instruction for students to do better, and working with the district we were able to bring together the Carnegie grant and to raise $6 million locally. That’s $14 million to invest in 16 high schools, and the results have been outstanding.”
While there is no “recipe” for improving achievement in the high schools, research shows that the ninth grade year is critical in determining whether a student will actually graduate from high school at all. If a student does not complete the ninth grade, the likelihood of graduating in the future is greatly diminished. During the High Schools for a New Society effort, schools focused on increasing literacy skills. Can the student read complex items and understand them? Can the student write about them? Can the student articulate what they have read in a coherent fashion? Measurements include fundamental statistics such as the number of students graduating “on time” in four years, the number of diplomas granted within Hamilton County, the percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced on standardized state tests, promotion rates from ninth to tenth grade, and the number of students entering college after graduation.
From 2003 to 2006, the on-time graduation rate in Hamilton County high schools rose from 69 percent to 75.8 percent; the number of diplomas granted increased 15.7 percent from 1,856 to 2,148; 94% of students passed the Tennessee English Gateway Exam, while the number of students scoring “advanced” increased from 50 percent to 66 percent; the ninth grade promotion percentage improved from 77.3 percent to 89.1 percent; and the number of high school graduates heading to college increased from 1,313 to 1,499, or 14 percent. Progress is one thing, but success is measured by ever-continuing improvement. Challener calls the effort a “journey” and says confidently that the expectation is for the numbers to always be “higher than they are.”
The school district and PEF have also partnered to create a Leadership Initiative which includes the Leadership Fellows program. More than 200 local educators have completed this program and now serve in leadership roles in the school system. These Leadership Fellows include 31 principals, 43 assistant principals, 60 literacy coaches, and more than 125 teachers. Twice a year, PEF holds leadership institutes for principals and other school leaders. Fifty-five new principals have received support from a mentoring program.
While there is much to celebrate, the work continues. In 2006, a $6 million grant from the Lyndhurst Foundation fueled the launch of the PEF Middle Schools for a New Society initiative, while the Annenberg Foundation provided a $2.5 million donation to the leadership programs and to increase communication with the general public on the progress taking place here. In 2007, the Carnegie Corporation provided a $1 million one-year grant to fund a program to improve performance in mathematics.
PEF launched a local fundraising campaign, and received over 250 gifts from local donors. They have also revamped their web site, www.pefchattanooga.org, and are hoping to increase the community’s understanding and support for their work.
Given the level of progress to date, it is remarkable that most area residents have at best a vague understanding of the mission of the Public Education Foundation. Challener and his staff of 12 dedicated professionals are committed to continuing and enhancing their strategic partnerships for the improvement of the educational experience in our public schools and the social and economic development of the region. Without doubt, as the results of these efforts continue to show positive trends the awareness of the PEF and its valuable contribution will grow in turn.