thedailytimes.com : Your 24/7 news source

EDITOR’S NOTE: Tennessee’s schools are ranked near the bottom of the nation in academic performance on national assessments. The United States has also experienced a slip in its international student assessment rankings. Recent studies and reports indicate schools are not adequately preparing students for the workforce and post-secondary education. State officials have implemented new graduation requirements, curriculum standards and assessments — which will take effect this school year — in an attempt to get education back on track. This is Part IV of an ongoing series focusing on local schools as they adjust to the changes.

Officials with the three local school systems have spent nearly two years preparing for the 2009-10 school year.

After all the pre-planning by Alcoa, Blount and Maryville officials, administrators say they’re now focused on providing teachers and students with the support they will need to be successful under the new curriculum standards.

Blount County officials focused last year on the system’s eighth-graders, and they worked a lot with teachers on how to address the new math standards, said Dr. Jane Morton, Blount County’s supervisor of grades 6-12.

“We’re big believers in growing your own experts,” Morton said. “We have a lot of caring and resourceful teachers, and those are the ones who will make the difference. It’s a big, big puzzle that all fits together. Every grade level, teacher and content level has a role to play.”

Officials are asking teachers to use the E-learning portal on the school system’s Web site to post presentations and templates, put up Web links and curriculum maps for other educators to use, she said.

Blount County officials expect to face scheduling and staffing challenges, Morton said. The science requirement changes will have a significant impact, especially for students who may not have the appropriate math background, she said.

State officials are concerned about the shortage of teachers who are actually certified to be chemistry or physics instructors, Morton said. “We’re fortunate to be adequately staffed. However, as all high schools look to meet the new requirements, we could have some issues.”

Blount County officials estimate the foreign language requirement will draw an additional 40 percent of the student population into these programs, Morton said. Administrators think this might pose future concerns.

Heritage High School’s freshman class is about 450 students, and the school has four foreign language teachers who can teach 720 students a year, Morton said.

“We’ll have to take care of our first- and second-year requirements (for incoming freshmen). We may have to look, in the future, at what we offer. It’s going to be a challenge.”

The athletic and fine arts departments will similarly be affected by increased requirements, Morton said.

The personal finance course poses unique scheduling concerns, because the class will be taught by accounting or marketing teachers, she said. Officials will have to examine many factors including whether accounting teachers — who are considered general education positions and therefore can teach five more students per section — could potentially offset some scheduling needs, she said.

Another piece of the Tennessee Diploma Project will be its end of course and diagnostic assessments. The ACT’s college readiness test for eighth- and ninth-graders, EXPLORE, and the ACT’s readiness test for tenth-graders, PLAN, will be administered to students.

Blount County officials will start using Knox County Schools’ template on how to use EXPLORE data as a guide to place students in courses where they’ll be most successful, Morton said.

Educators hope to identify students who are struggling early, Morton said. Supports are in place to help students, including credit recovery, remediation, tutoring, mentoring and self-contained classrooms, she said.

‘Big jump’

Maryville school officials think the system is poised for the changes, said Dr. Mike Winstead, Maryville’s assistant director of schools. Maryville City Schools has required four years of math in high school for several years and last year paired the personal finance course with an economics course, he said.

Last year school officials also implemented the new math, science and reading standards in grades K-2, Winstead said. Officials did not transition to the new standards in grades 3-12, because these students were being tested on the old standards, he said.

Officials have created a bridge curriculum for teachers to meet students halfway between the old and new standards, Winstead said.

“We know there will be a burden on them to teach classroom standards,” he said.

“They will have to teach the new standards and fill in the gaps. It’d be a big jump from third to fourth grade, for example, if you were going cold turkey. There’s a lot going on with the new standards. I feel like we’ve got a plan for all of it.”

Maryville officials view the state’s graduation requirements as a starting point for their own curriculum, he said. “We certainly don’t want to settle for minimum expectations,” he said. “We want to push our kids as far as possible. It’s how we’ll be successful.”

Administrators will be offering seminars on instructional strategies for the new standards. An expert will speak to K-4 teachers who will give a half-day of training on math instruction, Winstead said. K-6 teachers will also receive at least a day of Quantum training that teaches best practices.

Maryville’s main K-12 curricular focus this year will be reading, Winstead said. K-8 teachers will receive a day of training on writing, and middle and high school English teachers will receive two days of training, he said.

Teachers are being trained to use a common vocabulary when discussing writing, Winstead said. Students will now be completing writing assessments every six weeks, he said.

School officials will continue to look at curriculum and programming adjustments to meet student needs, said Maryville Director of Schools Stephanie Thompson.

“We like to focus on the whole child, not just test scores,” Thompson said. “We want to provide a well-rounded program, not just with core courses but with art, music, physical education, character development and the soft skills to work, get along with each other and be productive members of society. In order to do it, we need to continue to be able to recruit and train exceptional teachers and administrators.”

Officials are planning to use this school year as a baseline for future improvement, Winstead said. “We know we won’t have 90 percent (of students) proficient in the state, and we know we (Maryville City Schools) won’t have 97 percent proficient.

“From a system’s perspective when you start raising standards, you’ll start seeing the gaps between schools and subgroups. It’s something we need to be prepared for, because there are more differences than meet the eye. We’re already trying to close the gaps,” Winstead said.

Understanding why

Alcoa officials have sought to empower teachers by supplying them with as much information as possible over the last several years, said John Campbell, the system’s director of administrative services.

Officials sent nearly 70 teachers and administrators to Summer Standards Training conferences over the last two years, Campbell said. “We tried to send a lot of people to hear first-hand from the state trainers instead of sending administrators and a few teachers, then having them come back to translate it to everyone,” he said. “We wanted them to understand the reasons behind the changes and be able to directly implement them.”

Administrators and teachers will devote an in-service day this fall to discussing how they have implemented the standards and any challenges they might be facing, Campbell said. The system’s long-term goal is to determine what lessons and activities best teach the new standards.

Officials have purchased new science textbooks for grades K-12 that are aligned to the new standards, Campbell said. Administrators have also purchased supplementary math materials for teachers to use until their textbooks are up for adoption in two years.

Officials have purchased teacher resources which highlight effective strategies for teaching skills such as critical thinking, Campbell said. Administrators have also purchased test preparation materials.

“I’ve got a great faculty — top-notch professionals — and I’m not worried about any big changes except for math,” said Scott Porter, Alcoa High School’s principal.

School officials will try to bridge skill gaps with its freshman academy, and they’re hoping to create more diagnostic data points for incoming freshman, Porter said. “It will be important to place them in the right class from the beginning,” he said.

Officials have added several teachers to the freshman academy, Porter said. Administrators hope by exposing students to more faculty members that they will alleviate some student anxieties.

Alcoa High School recently become a Title I school, and administrators have also added several programs to support students this year, Porter said. Officials have created a program called the Learning Lab, which will offer remediation to both special education and general education students, he said.

Administrators will rely heavily on the credit recovery program, and they are also looking into the possibility of online courses, Porter said. Credit recovery is offered as an elective for nine weeks, and students can take the class for three weeks in the summer.

Feeling the pressure

Alcoa High School officials do not anticipate staffing problems, but educators are starting to feel the pressure. “Our thing in Alcoa is keeping our classes small. Now they’re starting to balloon,” Porter said.

Teachers are now in charge of 25-student classrooms, which is a large class by the system’s standards, he said.

Seven years ago, Porter said the high school had graduating classes of about 60 students. This year’s incoming freshman class is 150 kids, he said.

Administrators are working to set up dual-credit offerings for three career and technical education (CTE) programs including engineering, family and consumer sciences and marketing, Porter said. Officials will look to strengthen and expand their CTE programs to meet student needs in the future, he said.

Karleen Brooker, the school’s CTE director, meets several times a year with local business people to see what they’re looking for and educators build those needs into the curriculum, Porter said. Administrators will be offering courses in recreational leisure studies for students who want to work in the area’s tourism industry.

School officials currently offer a work-based learning class, and Porter said he hopes to expand the choices to include a curriculum project and service learning opportunities.

“I’d like to get something for our honor students, maybe with engineering firms, to accommodate their skill sets.”

Porter said he also hopes to get two more board-approved academic clusters — physical education and technology — in place for students.

Administrators will continue to evaluate alternative schedules, Porter said. Officials, however, are not going to change their class schedule next year, he said.