Hamilton County, Tennessee
Overview
Five years ago the NEA
Foundation, the Hamilton County Department of Education (HCDE), Hamilton County
Education Association (HCEA), and the Public Education Foundation (PEF) began
working with a handful of middle schools in Hamilton County.
Within a year of the $2.5 million grant from
the NEA Foundation that funded this work, the Chattanooga-based Lyndhurst
Foundation provided funds for a planning year and a $6 million, four year
grant. Hope became a reality as all 21 middle schools in the district benefited
from the combined support of these two dynamic foundations. As the NEA
Foundation grant period has come to an end, the Lyndhurst Foundation has
increased funding in order for the work to continue in the 2009-2010 school
year.
Goals of the initiative have
focused on creating a more rigorous learning environment where more students
score “advanced” on state exams while, at the same time, the achievement gap
between low-income and middle-income students is narrowed.
Key Strategies
Professional development for teachers and
school leaders has been a major focus of Middle Schools for a New Society,
including:
Semi-annual planning
retreats: Leadership teams of students, parents, teachers and administrators at
each school have come together to study effective methods for school
improvement and have developed plans
focused on the unique needs of their own schools.
Instructional coaches: The most effective professional development
is available when it is needed and where it is needed. Middle schools have been provided with expert
teachers to serve as coaches offering support to other teachers. These coaches
receive training in best practices and working with adults, participate in
network meetings, and bring information and effective teaching strategies back
to their schools. They encourage collaboration and sharing of great ideas,
model lessons and offer help and support to teachers who are working to improve
their craft.
Networks: Principals, assistant principals, instructional coaches, lead math
teachers, and lead literacy teachers across the district are working and
learning together through networks focused on attaining high levels of student
achievement. In network meetings, schools are able to share best practices,
strategies, and intervention that worked for them, and they have data to prove
it. Middle schools have begun to open their doors and their classrooms to
teachers who want to see, firsthand, stellar lessons.
Expert consultants: Networks have used Mike Schmoker’s Results Now to boost instructional
leadership skills; the Columbia
Readers’ and Writers’ project to boost literacy; input from evaluation teams
Corbett and Wilson (Drs. Bruce Corbett and Dick Wilson) and Miller and Davis
(Drs. Ted Miller and Lloyd Davis); and various other local and national experts
to discuss effective instruction.
Visits to high-performing
schools: Leadership teams have taken advantage of opportunities to visit
high-performing schools both within Hamilton County and in other parts of the
country.
Another key focus has been
on the use of data to set goals, measure progress, and perhaps most
importantly, improve instruction. Participants have examined data down to the
level of individual questions on exams so that teachers know what students
“get” and what they don’t, which allows the teachers to re-visit and re-teach
the missing elements.
Results
Reading/language arts:
Math:
In conclusion, there have been profound changes in Hamilton County middle
schools. Work toward redesigning these schools is substantive, data-driven and
on-going. Networks have been formed to work collaboratively and share best
practices. Teachers have gained an arsenal of new instructional strategies and
use them in classrooms every day and in all content areas. Students are better
readers and writers and are entering high school ready to learn.