Neelie Parker
Marthel Young

While they said it is good news that several local schools made significant improvements under the No Child Left Behind Act, school officials cautioned that there is still work to be done, particularly in addressing graduation rates.

In a news conference Tuesday, held at Orchard Knob Elementary School’s new facility, Hamilton County Schools officials praised schools that improved, including Orchard Knob.

For the first time since the 2002 No Child Left Behind law was implemented, East Lake and Orchard Knob elementary schools have moved into “good standing” after meeting “adequate yearly progress” benchmarks under the federal law. Those schools now are off the state’s “high priority” list, which contains the schools and systems that fail to meet requirements in the same area for at least two years in a row.

“We’re not going to stop. We have just begun,” Orchard Knob principal Marthel Young said.

Schools Superintendent Jim Scales congratulated the schools and said the district is “moving in the right direction,” but he said the work is not over. Graduation rates especially need to be addressed, he said.

Hamilton County’s 2006-07 graduation rate was about 75 percent, according to Chattanooga Times Free Press archives. Under No Child Left Behind, it should be at 90 percent by 2014.

All told, nearly 80 percent of the 76 district schools measured made the adequate yearly progress list, though only 45.5 percent of high schools did. Fifty-nine schools are in “good standing,” records show.

Eleven schools are on the No Child Left Behind “target” list, meaning they did not make adequate progress in at least one testing area this year. Part of the problem is insufficient test scores, according to NCLB results, but the biggest concern is low 2007 graduation rates.

At the news conference, the East Lake and Orchard Knob principals recognized their faculty and staffs and also credited strong leadership, data analysis, extra teacher training and support from the Chattanooga school reform program the Benwood Initiative.

Officials said many of the actions taken to redirect the two high-priority schools involved staff and administrative development with a focus also on classroom management.

“It was looking at the whole picture; it wasn’t just one area,” Ms. Parker said. “Looking at math and looking at attendance — if kids don’t come to school, you can’t teach them — and looking at reading.”

Including Chattanooga Middle Museum Magnet school, which closed after the 2007-08 school year, six Hamilton County schools are on the state’s “high priority” list. That number is lower than tallies in districts such as Memphis or Nashville’s Davidson County, Dr. Scales said.

Davidson County and Memphis districts each have 29 schools on “high priority” status, according to the Hamilton County Department of Education. According to the Tennessee Department of Education, Memphis’ district comprises 194 schools and Davidson County district counts 133 schools.

In the Hamilton County system, the five other schools on the state’s high-priority list are East Side Elementary School, Howard School of Academics and Technology, Lookout Valley Middle/High School, Ooltewah High School and Soddy-Daisy High School.

East Side Elementary made the adequate yearly progress list this year, but it must achieve another year of progress to shed “high priority” status. Brainerd High School, Hixson Middle School and Brown Middle School also moved from the “target” list to “good standing.”