McMinn gets grant for 'smaller' learning

RICHARD EDWARDS
THE DAILY POST ATHENIAN
FEBRUARY 10, 2005

A planning grant received by McMinn County High School aims at developing the concept of smaller learning environments within the confines of a large school.

The official presentation of the $50,000 federal grant came Monday during a ceremony at the high school, with U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. presenting an "oversized" check to school officials.

Earlier notification of the planning grant under the Small Learning Communities Program came several months ago in a letter from the U.S. Department of Education´s Office of Vocational and Adult Education.

Already, said librarian and grant project director Terry George, school staff members have been attending conferences and gathering information.

Ultimately, the goal is to receive a much larger implementation grant which would allow those ideas to be put into practice.

The good news, George said, is 80 percent of the applicants who receive the planning grant also receive the implementation funding.

"That doesn´t mean it´s a done deal," he said.

Duncan said at Monday´s ceremony it´s a program he´s proud to support. The grant program originally was called the "Smaller Schools Initiative," he said, because the intent was to keep smaller schools open. It started as a $45 million program and has since been expanded by the Department of Education.

"I´m real pleased with what it´s done now," he said.

Now, the Smaller Learning Communities program is used in some places to keep small schools open and in other cases is designed to help in school reorganization and provide additional student support services.

"This is a start; this is the way they do these programs," Duncan said before presenting the $50,000 planning grant.

Duncan added "if the school system does what I´m sure they´ll do," it can lead to annual funding of around $250,000 for each of the next three years for the implementation grant.

Socio-economic factors are at the basis of the grant application, George said, pointing to U.S. Census Bureau data for McMinn County in 2002. According to estimates included in that data, the average number of school-district children in Tennessee living in poverty is 612; in McMinn County it´s 938.

Also, 14.8 percent of families here live at or below the poverty level, George said.

The purpose of the grant - the only one presented this past year to a Tennessee school system - is to develop smaller learning communities within a large school to address those factors.

According to information from the U.S. Department of Education, Smaller Learning Communities grants are intended to assist large public high schools, which are defined as schools that include grades 11 and 12 and enroll at least 1,000 students in grades nine and above. McMinn High´s enrollment is in the neighborhood of 1,500.

"Grantees are authorized to use their funds to, among other things: (1) study the feasibility of creating smaller learning communities; (2) research, develop and implement strategies for creating smaller learning communities; (3) provide professional development for school staff in the teaching methods that would be used in the smaller learning community; and (4) develop and implement strategies to include parents, business representatives, community-based organizations, and other community members in the activities of the smaller learning communities," the Department of Education information stated.

In McMinn´s case, George said, changes in the possible configuration of the school would have to be done within the framework of existing personnel. Ultimate approval would be up to the McMinn County School Board.

Several configurations would be possible, George said. One would divide the school into upper grades 11 and 12 and lower grades 9 and 10 with an administrator over each section and the principal serving as the overall "CEO." Another possibility would have the grades divided into separate wings of the building.

The purpose, he added, would be to make sure every student gets the core curriculum before they advance to the next level.

The model George is working from is based on the High Schools That Work school reform model under the umbrella of the Southern Regional Education Board.

The initial focus will be on creating a freshman "academy," George said, adding research has shown ninth grade is the critical year for eventually graduating students from high school.

"The Smaller Learning Communities Planning Grant process is intended to provide the professional knowledge and tools that will enable our faculty and administrative staff to develop an academic program that supports the creation of smaller learning and social groups within our school´s large student body," George wrote in the project narrative. "In this way, we hope to increase student access to academic intervention and our facility´s ability to better meet individual learning needs. The result will be a better-prepared graduate capable of choosing to immediately enter the community´s work force or opting for additional post-secondary educational and/or technical training opportunities."

In the notification of the planning grant award, Susan Sclafani of the Department of Education stated the McMinn application "was ranked among those with the highest-quality designs" and "demonstrated a strong potential to develop a coherent set of strategies and interventions designed to ensure that all high school students acquire the reading/language arts and mathematics skills they need to participate successfully in rigorous academic courses that will equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to transition successfully to postsecondary education, an apprenticeship, or advanced training."