TN Department of Education:K-12

Accountability » Urban Education » Urban Education Summit

For Immediate Release
June 29, 2006

Tennessee Hosts Second Training for Urban Schools

Nashville , TN- Tennessee continued its quest toward urban education improvement this month as educators from urban systems and high priority high schools participated in the Urban Summit II. The Tennessee Department of Education created the first Urban Education Specialist position in 2003, recognizing the need for an intentional focus on the state's urban schools. Three-fourths of Tennessee 's high priority schools are located in urban settings. Roughly one-third of the state's children attend school in an urban system.

“Overcoming issues like poverty or high mobility, that can be more acute in urban systems, is not an insurmountable task,” Urban Education Specialist Gwen Watson said. “We have many success stories to prove that. However, the complexity of the situation requires a concentrated, prescriptive effort that takes these factors into consideration.”

The Urban Summit II focused on improving school culture, literacy levels, teacher retention and use of achievement data as an instructional guidepost, in addition to highlighting promising practices across the state. Central to each approach is constant attention to data from ongoing assessments throughout the year that gauge what skills students have and have not mastered. Examples of school improvement efforts in Tennessee that are working include:

District
School Improvement Focus

Description

Hamilton County
Benwood Initiative

With support from the Benwood Foundation, Hamilton County reformed nine elementary schools, designated a district leader dedicated to the Benwood schools and trained staff in using concrete data to guide how teachers teach.

Clarksville-Montgomery
Bridge Program

Select ‘overage' eighth graders participate in a summer academic transition program to help them start ninth grade on track to graduate, resulting in higher achievement among participants than non-participants.

Knox County
Project Grad

Knox County adopted the comprehensive reform model developed in Houston that prescribes specific interventions across grades K-12 to increase achievement.

Memphis City Schools
middle schools

Memphis decreased the number of identified middle schools from 16 to 3 in two years by building a collaborative network among its middle schools, designating an assistant superintendent for middle schools and focused strongly on data.

Metro Nashville
balanced literacy

Davidson County adopted a literacy program for elementary schools that uses a variety of ongoing evaluations to continually track student progress in reading; provided intense training in teaching reading and hired reading specialists for every elementary school. The program is now being expanded to middle schools.

While urban education initiatives strive to raise student achievement, educators often must address needs, such as whether a child has eaten recently or received care for health problems, before learning can occur. The office of Urban Education Improvement serves as a storehouse of proven instructional approaches and provides support for Tennessee 's urban educators.

“We are fortunate that the leaders of Tennessee 's urban systems have developed strong collaborative relationships around their common concerns,” Watson said. “The Summit provides a venue for these passionate educators to share successful strategies and troubleshoot challenges characteristic of urban settings.”

For more information, contact Rachel Woods at (615) 253-1960 or Rachel.Woods@state.tn.us .