Adult school helps students who have had problems in traditional setting
September 20, 2004
By Beverly A. Carroll - Staff Writer
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Loren Atkinson said he felt disconnected at Brainerd High School where the classes were large and he felt a lack of respect from peers and teachers.
He made passing grades, but the junior was in danger of dropping out of school, he said. Since he enrolled in Hamilton County's new adult high school, however, he's enjoying his classes and is on track to graduate next May. 'There were too many students at my other school,' the 17-year-old said. 'I like this school and the people.'
Loren is one of 157 students enrolled in Hamilton County's first adult high school, which opened this year. School board members voted last summer to open the program in the former Harrison Bay Vocational School site off state Highway 58.
'The program is aimed at students who, for whatever reason, had trouble making it in a traditional setting,' principal Bill Warren said. 'They come here and can start with a clean slate.'
Last year, slightly more than 10 percent of the 11,702 Hamilton County high school students left school without earning a diploma, school records show.
We lost about 1,200 kids last year,' Mr. Warren said. 'The superintendent said that's unacceptable, and he appointed me along with Sheila Young and Warren Hill to a committee to work on the solution.'
After visiting other adult high schools, Hamilton County officials settled on a program that allows students to earn two class credits every eight weeks. Students must be 17 or older with at least sophomore status. There is no charge for the classes, and students must provide their own transportation.
Some educators said serving 17-year-olds could encourage students to drop out of school. Bradley County school officials set the age limit at their adult school at 18 for that reason, officials there said.
But the Cohn Adult High School in Nashville this year lowered its age limit to 17, principal Barbara Crawford said. School officials recognized they need to reach at-risk students sooner rather than later, she said. 'At last count there were about 96,000 people in Davidson County without a high school diploma,' she said. 'We are probably scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as meeting the need.'
Dr. Crawford said the age was lowered to accept students who are a few credits short of graduating on time. 'We are trying to make it as appealing as possible, not give them more of what they had when they weren't successful,' Dr. Crawford said.
Many of Hamilton County’s enrollees are students who were mostly successful in school but short a credit or two at graduation time. Some are returning to school after an absence, and others are like Teddra Eaton, who was not going to be able to graduate from Central High School next May.
“They told me I would have to go another semester (after May) and I wouldn’t be able to graduate with my class,” the 17-year- old said.
She said at first she was unsure whether t he adult program was as good as high school. “But I like it here. Without this program I’d probably be getting the GED,” she said. “Now I plan to get my diploma and go to UTC.'
The adult high school is an effort to reconnect with students who get lost in traditional high schools, which are sometimes large and impersonal, school officials said. Nationwide, about 60 percent of students feel disengaged from school, according to a study released this month by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Students who feel they belong in their schools tend to perform better than those who do not, the study suggested.
Hamilton County Adult High School is. one of several efforts to address that problem, Mr. Warren said. The district also offers the Middle College program at Chattanooga State Technical Community College and online classes. Hamilton County's 16 other high schools are creating small learning communities and assigning students an adult adviser who works with the teens throughout high school.
School officials said there was little additional cost with the adult school's start-up. The school replaces Harrison Bay Vocational School, which was closed, as part of high school reform efforts to blend career and technology instruction at regular high schools. Some Harrison Bay teachers stayed to provide courses for students who are graduating under the vocational education track.
English teacher Claire Lane transferred to the school from the Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences, a magnet school.
'This was a chance to be in on building a program from the ground floor,' she said.
Ms. Lane said students are responding well. She has a wide range of academic levels in the classroom, from those reading on a fourth-grade level and up.
'I am giving them Advanced Placement work, and they are doing it,' she said. 'Some of them need more help than others. But it shows that children will rise to the challenge if you let them know you believe they can.'
E-mail Beverly A. Carrol] at bcarroll@timesfreepress.com