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Chattanooga: Academic expense slows help for blacks

By: Kelli Gauthier
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Jim Scales

The black male initiative intended to help turn around low-performing students at Howard and Brainerd high schools has been scaled back because it was too expensive, Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Jim Scales said.

“One reason we didn’t move forward with what (consultant Dr. Robert Green) laid out was we have some financial issues,” Dr. Scales said. “But we can’t use that as an excuse.”

Dr. Green’s plan included an intense reading improvement program and a parent academy. The program’s main feature, a credit-recovery class, would require hiring at least one more teacher at Howard and Brainerd, which the district cannot afford, Dr. Scales said.

In Hamilton County, and often across the nation, black males score lower on standardized tests and drop out of school more often than any other demographic, studies show. Howard’s student population is 93 percent black, while Brainerd is almost 98 percent black.

Students at Howard earned a composite ACT score of 14.7 in 2008, compared to the 19.7 average across the school system, according to Dr. Kirk Kelly, the district’s director of accountability and testing. Students at Brainerd earned an average score of 15.6, he said.

The Schott Foundation for Public Education, a Cambridge, Mass.,-based group that tracks the educational progress of black males, recently announced a challenge to school districts nationwide to raise the graduation rate of black males by 50 percent in the next five years.

Dr. Michael Holzman, a consultant for the foundation, said the issue is the poor quality of schools attended by black students.

“It appears that most black students in the country go to schools where most of the other kids are black, and in such schools, no one does very well,” he said. “When the percentage of black kids in a school goes up, the support that the school gets from the district and the state goes down. Also, the best teachers are not found in these schools.”

Dr. Scales said that, while the excitement and preparation for the Volkswagen plant also have affected implementation of the black male initiative, he plans to do what he can with limited resources.

For instance, Dr. Scales has invited two consultants he met recently from ACT and the America’s Choice educational organization to talk to the principals at Howard and Brainerd on Wednesday and offer suggestions for program modifications and grant opportunities.

Dr. Scales said he also plans to shuffle schedules at the two high schools so at least one teacher in each building can spend time offering remedial courses in subjects where students are struggling.

“We want to target their academic deficiencies so we can catch them up,” he said. “If we can make it work, this would be a pilot (for other schools).”

Although the initial plan was to target black males who are struggling academically, Dr. Scales said the modified program would include females as well.

The Schott Foundation’s Dr. Holzman suggested that, if Hamilton County wants to see improved academic performance at Howard and Brainerd, administrators must transfer all the best teachers in the county there and give them all the resources they need.

He also suggested creating programs for after school and on Saturdays, as well as classes for gifted students.

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