Jim Scales

Staff Photo by Shane McMillan
Senior Brendan Holloway, right, works on a English assignment Thursday in his Directed Studies class at Lookout Valley High School while teacher Tom Tamburello talks with student Skyla Tinker about grades at his desk. The class is intended to help kids with everything from homework to scholarship applications, making it easier for seniors to finish school and continue their education beyond high school. With about half of the schools in Hamilton County showing a drop in graduation rates, schools like Lookout Valley are trying find programs and ideas that will keep kids on track.

Geoffrey Chaucer might cost James Sanders his high school diploma.

Mr. Sanders, a senior at Lookout Valley High School, is passing most of his classes but says confusing English assignments on Chaucer’s medieval classic “The Canterbury Tales” are almost more than he can handle.

Although he gives pep talks to classmates on the brink of dropping out, he worries about his own future if he doesn’t raise his grade.

“I really do think I’m in danger of not graduating,” he said.

At a time when producing an educated work force is of utmost importance, the graduation rate at seven of Hamilton County’s 17 high schools decreased last year, dragging the district’s overall average down from 75.1 percent in 2007 to 72.6 percent in 2008, according to the state report card released last week.

“That 72 percent is the number we’re now working against,” said Dr. Kirk Kelly, the school system’s director of accountability and testing. “We’re definitely looking to target the graduation rate because it’s not where we want it to be.”

Improving the graduation rate was one of the main reasons Hamilton County Board of Education Vice Chairman Chester Bankston decided to run for the school board.

As Volkswagen and many subsidiary companies begin moving to the area, raising the number of high school graduates is critical, he said.

“I’m disappointed that this is the direction it’s going ... I want to see us improve tremendously,” he said. “We’ve got to improve if we’re going to get kids prepared for jobs coming to this town.”

Despite the overall decrease in the graduation rate, the news from the state Report Card wasn’t all bad. At 10 county high schools, the graduation rate improved last year, including at Brainerd and Howard School of Academics and Technology.

Brainerd and Howard, whose poor dropout and graduation rates have recently been under scrutiny, raised their graduation rate by 2 and 3.5 percentage points, respectively.

“I was pleased that it went up, but I won’t be satisfied until we’re at 100 percent. And we can do it,” Howard Principal Dr. Paul Smith said.

unequal comparison?

Hamilton County’s 2.5 percent drop in overall graduation rate is somewhat misleading, administrators contend, because of a change last year in how some of the district’s graduates were counted.

They point to Hamilton County High School as an example. When the Harrison school first opened its doors in 2004, it was considered a program — not a school. The program served only about 40 students, and their test scores and any other records were counted toward the home school from where they transferred, not against the system as a whole.

By last year, the adult high school had grown so significantly that Tennessee Department of Education officials said it could no longer be considered a program. So beginning with last year’s class, all of Hamilton County High’s students were counted for the district, good or bad.

Throughout the year, enrollment fluctuates from between 150 and 300 students. In most cases, students at the school take longer than the state-accepted four years and a summer to graduate, and they are counted as dropouts, administrators say.

“Once you’re designated as a school, you have the same responsibilities as a school,” said Dr. Connie Smith, the state department of education’s director of school innovation, improvement and accountability.

Hamilton County officials maintain that comparing the graduation records from 2007 and 2008 is like looking at apples and oranges. If the adult high school were counted as a program last year, the district’s graduation actually would have increased by more than a percentage point, they argue.

But from this point forward, Hamilton County High must count as a school, so administrators admit they have their work cut out for them.

“We don’t view that as an excuse,” Dr. Scales said. “We’ve got to raise the graduation rate.”

STUDENT INTERVENTION

At Lookout Valley High School, the graduation rate dropped nearly 10 percentage points, from 77.8 percent to 68.3 percent.

“We’re a small school, so if we lose one or two kids, it kills us,” said principal Lee McDade about the school, which serves about 450 students in grades 6-12.

In response, administrators at Lookout Valley recently divided up all 38 seniors among three teachers who spend 30 minutes with them each day, helping with anything from English homework to college applications.

“Before, a lot of them were slipping through the cracks,” said senior adviser and auto mechanics teacher Tom Tamburello. “We had a percentage of students we knew were borderline, but so far they’ve been making very good grades. They know there’s no way to duck or hide or anything.”

Students are paying attention to Mr. Tamburello and the others who are tracking their grade point average, report cards, progress reports and class credit checklists, said Lookout Valley senior Janearia Pullom, 18.

Ms. Pullom, who gave birth to son Ja’Vonte’ in ninth grade, said she is determined to graduate and has been feeling extra pressure lately from her principal.

“This year, Mr. McDade is really on us about our grades,” she said. “He’s really trying to get us to raise them up.”

At Sequoyah High School in Soddy-Daisy, where graduation rates dropped almost 4 percent, administrators said a change in the school’s overall focus is partly to blame. Sequoyah shifted from a vocational school to a comprehensive high school four years ago. This renewed emphasis on academics has taken a few years to trickle down, since previously many students attended the school only part-time and did not earn a traditional diploma.

Students who now enroll at Sequoyah often are more focused on some kind of post-secondary education, so princial Steve Holmes expects fewer students to drop out or get a GED. His school’s graduation rate will increase, he predicted.

“There’s now a greater focus on academics, and that change took place four years ago,” he said. “Parents meet with me when the kids come in, and they know what the expectations are.”