Grant to help rebuild English, math classes

Math and English classes for underclassmen at two Hamilton County high schools will get an overhaul starting this summer, as researchers sit back to see if the program works.

Hixson, Central, Brainerd and East Ridge high schools were chosen along with 20 other schools across the nation to participate in Every Classroom, Every Day. The program's goal is to provide two years of professional development for teachers to improve student engagement, curriculum alignment and classroom rigor.

Two of the four locals schools selected actually will receive the professional development; the other two still will participate in the research portion.

For ninth- and 10th-grade students, the change will mean a full year of 90-minute math and English classes instead of the one semester of each they now receive. The students still must earn 28 credits to graduate, administrators said, but they now may be in different subjects.

"If our freshmen don't come in and have a good, successful year, they probably won't stick around," said East Ridge principal Ron Peck during a Hamilton County Board of Education work session on the new program.

The program is funded by a federal grant and is a partnership between the Institute for Research and Reform in Education and the University of Rochester.

School board member Rhonda Thurman said she was concerned that the reason the district even needed a program like this was because of what she considers to be a sub-par elementary math school curriculum.

"When the high schools get the students, they're already so far behind," Ms. Thurman said.

She said she was "appalled" to find out that some schools in Hamilton County pass out "cheat sheets" with multiplication tables on them for students to use during standardized tests.

Despite Ms. Thurman's concern over the cost to Hamilton County -- substitutes for participating teachers' classrooms, personal digital assistants for administrators -- Superintendent Jim Scales and board Chairman Kenny Smith signed a contract Tuesday accepting the grant program.

The high schools will find out next week which two will receive the professional development, and which two will receive the research portion only. Hamilton County eventually plans to adopt the new teaching methods in all of its 17 high schools.

Red Bank High School math teacher Chuck Jones, who attended Tuesday's meeting, said that, even though his school wasn't part of the original pilot group, he looked forward to the positive changes the program would bring to the district.

"It's going to carry over. The other teachers will pick up on what's going on, and there will be a general excitement," he said.

Board member Janice Boydston agreed.

"Bottom line is, this is being paid for in two schools, and all our other schools are going to get it," she said. "It's a no-brainer to me."