November 29, 2004


Dear Hamilton County Educators and Parents:

I’m writing to make sure you know the good news about our public schools.

As you may have heard, Tennessee’s criterion-based tests for grades 3-8 showed Hamilton County students are making real progress. In our rural, suburban, and urban schools, students at all grade levels made significant gains in reading, language arts, and math. The nine urban elementary schools that PEF, Benwood Foundation, and the district have been working with these past three years posted the greatest gains of all.

For the last three years, PEF and the school district have also been involved in a massive effort to transform our high schools, using funds from Carnegie Corporation and local donors. There is now ample evidence that our high schools are making real progress:

On the state’s English Gateway exam, our students scored higher and made greater gains than the state and all other metropolitan districts.
96% of Hamilton County students passed the state’s biology exam—a percentage better than or equal to all metro areas and the state.
On the state’s writing exam, Hamilton County students improved their scores and outperformed the state and all metro areas.
On the ACT test, we saw a significant increase in the number of students who took the exam, and the average score rose for the third year in a row.
The number of 9th graders promoted to 10th grade increased by 4%, and the district’s dropout rate decreased significantly.
Along with this good news, I’m sending two essays that recently appeared in national publications. Both point to the success of our reform efforts. The <first piece> describes the remarkable success of the Benwood Schools and is part of U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige’s report to Congress. The <second essay> is something I wrote at the request of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a national organization that sees Hamilton County’s high school reform work as a national model.

While these gains and this recognition are cause for celebration, we cannot forget that this summer’s budget cuts have hurt each of our schools. There are fewer teachers working in our public schools, and class sizes are up across the district. Ten elementary schools lost their assistant principal, and twelve elementary schools lost their guidance counselor. The science texts, English books, and computers that were out of date last year are even more so this year. High schools were particularly hard hit. Central High cut its faculty by four teachers, chemistry classes have 35 students, and juniors and seniors lost the chance to take special courses in the newly created career academies.

Our public schools are far from perfect, but virtually all indicators show that our schools are making significant progress—progress that is being recognized across the country. Our community should applaud the progress and insist that improvement continues. We must stay focused on strengthening our public schools, for they are the key to our future.

Thank you for continuing to care about public schools, and I hope you will share this good news with your friends and colleagues. I would welcome your thoughts or suggestions.

Sincerely,


Daniel Challener
President