Author: admin

Foundation, church partner to install tiny houses for homeless college students

A Lynnwood-based foundation and a local church are partnering with a Seattle company to provide portable housing units for homeless college students and those attending work-training programs.

Pallet, a Seattle-based Social Purpose Corporation, is working in conjunction with the Jean Kim Foundation for the Homeless Education and Lynnwood’s Good Shepherd Baptist Church to build a six-unit, fenced-in community on the church grounds.

For the past two years the church — in partnership with the Jean Kim Foundation — has been hosting an encampment for people experiencing homelessness. The foundation, established in 2015, offers six options to support students who are currently homeless or at risk of homelessness. This includes helping students enroll in college and connecting them to apprenticeship, vocational skills and literacy programs. (See our earlier story to learn more.)

Good Shepherd Pastor Christopher Boyer said he has already seen a change in those who have found shelter in the community known as Shepherd’s Village, a 10-minute walk from Edmonds Community College.

“They see a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s not an oncoming freight train as it is for so many folks experiencing homelessness,” he said. “Over all it’s been a fabulous experience and I hope other churches in the area buy into this idea.”

Each 64-square-foot unit comes with a built-in bed, desk and shelf and will have heating, air conditioning and electricity. The units will also include a smoke detector, fire extinguisher and emergency escape hatch built into the wall. Shepherd’s Village also has a solar-powered shower and Wi-Fi so that the students can study. An on-site manager will also be available to assist residents.

The project, at a cost of $31,000 for six units, has been entirely funded by the Jean Kim Foundation.

Pallet CEO Amy King, whose husband Brady designed the units, said she hopes more cities will decide to use the same method to help with the issue of homelessness.

“I think it’s a more versatile approach and it’ll hopefully save them money in the long run, which allows them to help more people,” she said.

In addition to Pallet, King and her husband own a construction company called Squarepeg, with both businesses serving as a second-chance employment opportunity for people who have a criminal and/or addiction history.

“With both companies we have construction jobs and manufacturing jobs and we have a pipeline of people who come to us from the Department of Corrections, local shelters and case managers throughout the cities,” she said.

Jason Dunbar, services coordinator for the Jean Kim Foundation, said the idea of investing in the project is to ensure each student has a stable, personal space to work toward a better future.

“The mission here is get people off the street, help break the chains of poverty through education,” he said.

Residents of Shepherd’s Village will be vetted to ensure they are good fit for the new community. He said applicants cannot have warrants, cannot be registered sex offenders and will be subject to weekly random drug tests.

Dunbar said Shepherd’s Village is not just meant to provide someone struggling with homelessness a roof over their head, but to give them a sense of worth.

“I think when you’ve got value, your success is going to be better,” he said.

[Read more at Edmonds News] Read More

As Memphis parents struggle to find information about schools, one parent group is calling for a simpler enrollment system

Memphis parent Leisa Crawford didn’t have time to look through dozens of websites and zig-zag hundreds of miles around town to find a school for her child.

So she relied on word-of-mouth.

“When you live here in Memphis … you don’t go on the website,” she told members of parent advocacy organization Memphis Lift earlier this year. “We heard about KIPP, Snowden — OK, we’re going there. Or it’s a neighborhood school and we don’t even look past that.”

Parents have found it difficult to get information about schools because there are so many types to choose from compared to 20 years ago. So Crawford and dozens of parents like her are calling for a simpler way to access information about the more than 200 schools in Memphis.

They hope a process called “unified enrollment” will help them make sense of their choices and get their children into their favorite school. In unified enrollment, each family across the city would fill out a common application listing their top choices. They would then submit those choices electronically by a deadline that is the same for every parent. Often, information about schools is included on the application website.

Memphis schools have been segregated for decades. Currently, parents who are white, well-connected, and affluent have a better chance of getting into the best schools. They have more time to research, and so are more informed about school offerings, quality, and application deadlines.

But parents from low-income families, who are mostly people of color, often have less flexible schedules because lower paying jobs do not offer many opportunities for parents to take off from work to look for schools. This means they often miss school application deadlines — and better schools tend to fill up long before then.

“Over the years, we’ve talked with parents and grandparents who are frustrated with their neighborhood schools and are drowning in the process to enroll their children in high-performing schools,” said Sarah Carpenter, Memphis Lift’s executive director.

“They know their babies are not getting the education they deserve, but parents can’t always find a solution,” she continued. “The truth is, when parents can’t get access to quality schools, then real school choice doesn’t exist.”

A handful of cities see unified enrollment as a way to solve that problem, including Chicago, Detroit, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Newark, N.J., and Washington, D.C. The program in Detroit never happened because of a toxic political environment, poor planning, and bad timing. Newark’s got off to a rocky start, but enjoys almost unanimous support from parents who use it.

Simplifying how parents enroll their children in Memphis schools is already in progress. Shelby County Schools now allows parents to apply and transfer to schools online — including its sought-after optional schools that require students to score well on tests. The district enrolls about 80 percent of Memphis public school students; the other 20 percent are charter schools or schools run by the state.

Unified enrollment has been floated twice before in Memphis — once in a 2015 report commissioned by the Achievement School District, and again during meetings last year , between Shelby County Schools and its charter sector. But talks haven’t gone far.

The 2015 report by the Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice included interviews with school leaders, education advocates, parents, and philanthropists, and said the city is ripe for unified enrollment.

National philanthropies have widely supported unified enrollment because they want traditional districts and charter sectors to collaborate on the process, and not compete with each other for students. To avoid claims of bias, some cities have brought in a third-party to manage the system.

Critics say unified enrollment unfairly helps the charter schools that otherwise wouldn’t have as big a platform to advertise their programs. Supporters say the benefits of unified enrollment outweigh the issues. Though many policymakers have called for changes in their unified enrollment systems, few have called to scrap them entirely.

Shelby County Schools’ application process would be combined with charter and state-run schools, which is a tough sell because the district sees those schools as competitors. School board members said as recently as this summer that charter schools are a significant financial burden that state lawmakers should help alleviate.

Still, district leaders’ interest has grown in recent years.

One of Shelby County Schools’ own, Sharon Griffin, has taken the reins at the state-run district. Griffin is known for her collaborative leadership. Her new role could help bring more cooperation between the state-run district and the local district and make unified enrollment more likely. But this is just one of many thorny issues for the two districts to sift through, including sharing student information, and managing crumbling facilities.

Last year, Shelby County Schools was more open to unified enrollment as part of a larger effort to educate parents on their choices, and even sent out a survey to charter operators to gauge interest.

“There is some interest,” said Natalia Powers, who oversees

Ultimately, she said the parent’s interest should be top of mind as leaders consider a unified enrollment system.

“It’s not about the school leader,” she said. “It’s about ease and accessibility to parents.”

The change could help school operators too, said Carpenter, the parent advocate. Schools could track parent preferences more easily and give operators a better idea of how many students they will enroll. But the real winners would be parents, she said.

“Access and choice are different,” she said. “We have choice but we don’t have access to choice.”

[Read more at Chalkbeat] Read More

Community colleges prepare for TN Reconnect influx

Money is often the top barrier standing between students wanting to further their education, but thanks to Tennessee Reconnect, adults who want to go to college don’t have to fit the bill. The program offers a full scholarship.

“I had no idea what I wanted to do,” Megan Roberts, a first semester Tennessee Reconnect student, said. “It was just so expensive to pay for classes.”

Roberts is a wife, mom of a special needs child and a first semester student at Volunteer State Community College in the Tennessee Reconnect program. She’s also pretty lucky. Only 1,500 Reconnect students got accepted at Vol State this fall before classes were full.

“In Reconnect, I don’t have to worry about a part time job on the side. I don’t have to worry about juggling a job and two kids and school,” said Roberts.

Vol State does have to worry about juggling the extra students this fall and the hundreds more coming in the spring.

“This office was really busy,” said Pam Carey, manager of the Vol State Adult Learning and Veterans Affairs Office.

Carey says advisers are working around the clock to gear up for the spring. She says the phone in the Reconnect office never stops ringing.

“There was a survey to ask do you want weekends, online, nights and the majority was online, so they did increase the online offerings,” added Carey.

Vol State also added extra night classes and faculty. The school will soon add an extra worker in the adult learning center to help new adult students with the transition.

And Vol State is not alone, Nashville State Community College recorded the highest Reconnect enrollment in the state with more than 3,500 students this fall. They added nearly 20 extra positions and expanded online classes. Even with all of the additions, not everyone will be accepted for the spring semester. Classes will fill quickly so a little advice from Roberts.

“I would say not to be completely discouraged or feel crushed that you didn’t get into Reconenct now, just keep fighting for it. Keep perusing your goals because at the end of the day it’ll be worth it,” said Roberts.

Spring registration begins Nov. 6 at Vol State.

[Read more at Fox 17] Read More

What Literacy Skills Do Students Really Need for Work?

There’s a gap between what schools teach and what employers demand, but it’s a fuzzy one.

Schools are under growing pressure to make sure that students are ready for work or job training, as well as college, when they graduate from high school. But employers say their young hires haven’t learned the reading, writing, and verbal-communication skills that are most important to a successful working life.

That gap between reality and expectations begs a boxful of questions about whether there’s a preparation problem and, if so, how to solve it.

Should K-12 schools add workplace-oriented literacy skills to their already-heavy lineup of classics like the five-paragraph essay? Who should teach young people how to write an environmental-impact report or explain quarterly business results to investors: High schools? Colleges? Or are such skills better learned at work or in job-training programs?

Surveys of employers paint a picture of discontent. Executives and hiring managers report that they have trouble finding candidates who communicate well. Good oral-communication skills, in particular, rank especially high on employers’ wish lists, alongside critical thinking and working in teams.

But do companies’ hiring struggles mean that K-12 schools, colleges, and job-training programs are doing a poor job of preparing students for work?

Some labor economists argue that the much-ballyhooed “skills gap” is caused not by inadequate career preparation but by companies’ refusal to provide the pay and training necessary to get the workers they need. And many educators argue that the primary purpose of schooling isn’t to create a jobs pipeline but to prepare young people to be informed, active citizens.

Education Week‘s new special report on literacy and the workplace won’t be able to resolve these arguments for you. But it can give you a glimpse of how some schools and employers are grappling with the workplace-literacy demands that young people face. Relatively few K-12 schools, it seems, are seriously exploring this kind of work.

From Mechanics to Managers

Perhaps unsurprisingly, career and technical education programs are more likely than regular K-12 schools to teach literacy skills in ways that link directly and explicitly to work. Helping aspiring engineers decode complicated technical reports, for instance, can help students make real-world connections and fire up their motivation. But they also need strong general-literacy skills so they don’t bump into glass ceilings.

“Are we creating students who can be lifelong learners, not just the oil changers and mechanics, but the managers, the owners of the business? If you’re in it for that game, then reading is vitally important for their long-term success,” said Travis Park, who studies the integration of core academics into CTE programs as an associate professor of agricultural education at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

By most accounts, students are bringing weak writing skills into college and entry-level jobs. Eight years after nearly all states’ adoption of the Common Core State Standards, which call for more writing, studies show that high school students do very little substantive writing at all, let alone writing in specific genres such as business or science that would give them a taste of the working world.

The kinds of writing employers prize most are often not the most highly technical ones. They want workers who can explain things concisely, support their requests with evidence, and understand the appropriate shifts in tone necessary for different audiences. One teacher surveyed local employers and found that what they really wanted was for her to teach cursive writing, so workers could sign their paychecks.

Some kinds of workplace writing, however, should be taught by employers, because schools can’t cover them all, said Steve Graham, a professor at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University, who specializes in writing instruction.

“If we make an assumption that writing differs by context, some of the responsibility [for teaching students] just realistically is going to have to fall on businesses, and I think businesses should accept that,” Graham said.

“Schools are not going to be able to be responsible for all … the different kinds of skills that [businesses] want. And even if they were more responsive, there would still need to be some on-the-job training.”

The Newest Literacy

Digital literacy is also claiming its place, alongside reading, writing, speaking, and listening, as a crucial skill set in the workplace. Education Week spent time with four employees in very different jobs at a big Delaware health-care provider and found that those new-age skills are essential at every stage of the employment ladder.

On the lower rungs, for jobs such as environmental service assistants (who clean and disinfect rooms) and patient-care technicians (who take vital signs), the ability to go beyond basic familiarity with apps and digital communications tools to manipulate and make sense of information using different software packages is a big key to advancement.

At the top rungs, people like health information management executives need deep clinical knowledge but also a rich understanding of where and how information is generated, stored, analyzed, presented, and used across different systems, and the ability to synthesize that information and use it to make strategic decisions.

“Schools absolutely need to be teaching these skills. If students don’t get the technological know-how and mindset to adapt to and learn these technologies, they can’t be competitive,” said Hiller Spires, a professor and senior research fellow in literacy education at North Carolina State University.

Matthew T. Hora, who studies workplace communication as a cultural anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, urges schools and employers to embrace a blended concept of responsibility for workplace-literacy skills.

“I’ve talked to a lot of educators who think it’s not their job to prepare students for careers, that their job is to perpetuate disciplinary knowledge and build engaged citizens,” Hora said.

“But it’s problematic to completely ignore what is going to happen to these graduates when they go out into the world. We need to think about the labor market and careers and make sure that a broad range of things are on the table when we talk about the purposes of education.”

[Read more at Education Week] Read More

Here’s what school and district leaders have to say about Tennessee education

Concerns about school funding and the condition of school buildings were front and center in results published Tuesday from a statewide survey of Tennessee education leaders.

Of the 575 leaders who responded, none said that they thought Tennessee’s funding formula should stay as it is, according to TennesseeCAN, a Nashville-based education advocacy organization. This is the third year of the organization’s survey.

School funding has been a high-profile topic in Tennessee for years, and is the backdrop of a three-year legal fight between the state and Shelby County Schools and Metro Nashville Public Schools. Tennessee’s two largest districts are suing the state over whether it allocates enough money to provide an adequate education, particularly for urban school systems that serve more students who live in poverty, have special needs, or come from non-English-speaking homes.

In the survey, 71 percent of district and school leaders said they support some sort of change to the way Tennessee funds schools. More than 40 percent of both groups said they favor weighting school funding based on student need.

Only 4 percent of the 63 district leaders surveyed said they believe they receive an adequate amount of funding.

About 6 percent of the 512 school leaders surveyed said they had more than $500,000 worth of deferred maintenance on their school building, while about 30 percent said their building had $50,000 worth of repairs or less.

The surveys also covered topics like leader preparation, parental involvement, and previous educational experience. You can find results for district leaders, school leaders, and overall takeaways on TennesseeCan’s website.

[Read more at Chalkbeat] Read More

Tennessee hits highest graduation rate for second year in a row

Tennessee’s graduation rate held steady year over year, maintaining the record rate of 89.1 percent that was recorded last school year.

In Middle Tennessee, Nashville public schools posted a similar graduation rate from the previous year while Williamson County Schools posted one of its highest graduation rates in several years.

Overall, more than 56 percent of districts with high schools saw their graduation rates improve compared with last year’s rates, according to the Tennessee Department of Education.

“Our schools and districts should be proud that once again we have hit our state’s highest graduation rate on record while still holding our students to high expectations,” said Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen. “By continuing to raise the expectations, we are signaling that Tennessee students are leaving high school with the knowledge and skills to be successful in college and the workforce. This graduation rate is a testament to the work being done by teachers and students in schools across the state.”

The majority of the districts statewide — 106 districts — posted graduation rates above 90 percent, according to the Education Department.

Tennessee calculates its graduation rates by the number of students who graduate in four years plus a summer. The state put into place harder standards for graduation in 2011 under the Gov. Bill Haslam administration.

The number of students completing high school has slowly risen since the 2011 year, when the state posted an 86 percent graduation rate.

Tennessee students, as of the 2018 graduation year, were required to participate in the ACT or SAT to graduate.

Nashville and Williamson schools

Metro Nashville Public Schools’ graduation rate fell slightly, with the district posting an 80.2 percent graduation rate.

That was down from 80.3 percent in the 2016-17 school year.

The district’s graduation rate also hit a three-year low. The district’s graduation rate in the 2015-16 school year hit 81 percent before dipping almost a full percentage point.

Nashville public schools spokeswoman Dawn Rutledge didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Williamson County Schools’ 95.9 percent graduation rate in 2018 was the highest since the 2011 requirements were put in place.

“I am proud of the students, parents, teachers, staff and school board members who continue to make graduating from high school a priority,” said Mike Looney, WCS superintendent.

Middle Tennessee graduation rates

Cheatham County Schools

2017-18: 91.1

2016-17: 89.9

2015-16: 91.9  

Clarksville-Montgomery County School System 

2017-18: 94.2

2016-17: 95.1

2015-16: 94.8 

Metro Nashville Public Schools

2017-18: 80.2

2016-17: 80.3

2015-16: 81.0

Robertson County Schools

2017-18: 94.5 

2016-17: 96.9 

2015-16: 94.4 

Rutherford County Schools 

2017-18: 95.6

2016-17: 95.3 

2015-16: 95.2

Sumner County Schools 

2017-18: 94.3

2016-17: 94.7 

2015-16: 92.2 

Williamson County Schools 

2017-18: 95.9

2016-17: 95.6 

2015-16: 95.5 

Wilson County Schools 

2017-18: 95.6

2016-17: 96.2

2015-16: 95.1

[Read more at The Tennessean] Read More

Dr. Joseph Cautions Against Quick Fixes for Under Performing Metro Schools

Superintendent of Metro Nashville Public Schools Dr. Shawn Joseph led a presentation to a packed audience of educators, media and parents why some 21 Nashville area schools had been added to the state list of “priority” schools – meaning schools that have fallen below minimum standards on testing results and were a priority for improvement and additional state funding. Most of the low performing schools designated as “priority” were linked to problems of students missing too much school–often because of poverty related issues–no adequate health care, no dental care, not enough clothing or food to eat.  

Dr. Sharon Gentry, Board Chair, said that many parents of children in her district do not have jobs. 

“Until they get a job–a job–we’re going to have challenges. This situation did not get created overnight. We didn’t create it, but it is ours now to own.” 

Dr. Joseph asked Dr. Lisa Coons, Executive Director of Schools of Innovation, to explain that “priority schools” were those in the bottom 5% and some of the poor performing schools elsewhere in the state had closed which had the effect of landing some Nashville schools in the bottom 5% of the list. Board Chair Sharon Gentry also said that the Board of Education “was not taking off the table” this tactic–closing down under-enrolled schools while it considers how best to use the $3.6 million dollars in Federal grants and additional state funds towards improving the performance of schools (with adequate enrollments) that are ‘priority’ schools.  

Dr. Joseph emphasized that the district’s strategy was successful in moving four of the previous nine schools off the state’s 2015 list. He characterized his approach to improvingschools as “research based” in response to a question from a parent from Tusculum Elementary district as to why Reading Readiness Program and other supports had been stopped.  

“I’m a research guy. Some of those programs were not shown to be successful. When it’s not working, we won’t do it. It’s not the program that makes the difference, it’s the people. We need to invest in training, leadership,” Dr. Joseph said. Joseph also said the level of funding coming from the federal grant and state funds were less than the levels he had requested. He said “We’ll still make progress, but it will be slower.”

The strategy that seemed to be most effective was to hire the best teachers, coach teachers, and ensure the curriculum was strong.

“In addition….it was clear that strong community partnerships were significant in helping transform the schools that successfully exited the priority list,” said Dr. Lisa Coons.

MNPS schools that exited priority-designation were Inglewood Elementary School, Napier Elementary School, Pearl-Cohn High School and Whitsitt Elementary School. Of the five remaining schools, two schools – Robert Churchwell Elementary and Buena Vista Elementary – saw growth that moved them off the state priority list but not off the federal-designated Comprehensive Support and Improvement list. The three middle schools remaining on the list faced significant challenges around staffing. 

“The increase in priority schools indicates the need for us, as a district, to place more differentiated resources into our neediest schools; it further speaks to us as a collective community to better provide community-based supports to schools to ensure we can accelerate them,” Joseph said. “The question we must ask ourselves is how do we make all of our schools a priority so that they are all successful.”

The meeting included one success story from a school that had come off the priority list. Justin Uppinghouse, principal of Whitsitt Elementary, explained how things improved.  

“When I first came to the school in 2014 we were in the bottom 1.6% in the state. The problem was that we believed that 98% were better than us. Our students come to school with great challenges. We are working to change the culture and climate of learning for students, families, parents who want to participate in the change. Parents are now proud to be part of the school. We won a Federal magnet school grant to become a priority STEAM school focused on environmental engineering. I see a level of enthusiasm in the school now.”

The sense of urgency from parents and media who wanted to see speedy changes was tempered by an administration that warns against quick fix programs in favor of changes backed by research and data that verify improvement. Dr. Joseph and Board chair Sharon Gentry both emphasized the need of the community to make education a priority – by funding it adequately to hire the best teachers at adequate salaries, engaging parents and getting partnerships in the community from businesses and non-profits.  

Sharon Gentry quoted an African proverb that was more of a warning than the more upbeat “it takes a village to raise a child.”  She quoted the proverb “The village that does not support the child will one day see him return to burn it down to feel its warmth.”

[Read more at The Tennessee Tribune] Read More

University of North Georgia implementing ‘Momentum Year’ to help freshmen get a taste of their major

For many college students, the toughest part of earning a bachelor’s degree is getting through those first two years of core classes and settling on a major area of study.

To help alleviate this burden, the University of North Georgia (along with other schools in the University System of Georgia) is preparing to launch its “Momentum Year” beginning in the 2019 fall semester, which aims to give freshmen a taste of their chosen degree path before it’s too late.

“Ideally you want to reduce time to graduation, which would reduce the cost to the student,” said Dr. Eugene Van Sickle, associate department head of History, Anthropology and Philosophy at UNG, and the assistant vice president of Strategic Student Success Initiatives. “We’re really ramping up the support services that we have for students to help them stay on track and make progress.”

The momentum year concept originates from within the Complete College Georgia program, which was established in 2011 to increase the percentage of the state’s population with some level of college education to 60 percent from 42 percent by 2020.

In Georgia’s public colleges and universities, 42 percent of full-time bachelor’s degree students will not graduate within six years, according to a recent report from the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute. And about 15 percent of freshmen do not return for their sophomore year.

The momentum year, which is tailored to the needs of each institution and its student demographics, includes having freshmen select a “meta-major,” such as in the social or health sciences, for nine credit hours.

Freshman students will also take English and math courses that better align with their “meta-major.”

Students are expected to complete at least 30 credit hours in their first year.

Van Sickle said that because many students are undecided on a major when entering UNG, or change their major along the way, the momentum year is designed to provide “intentional advising” and mentoring to educate students about different degree paths and match their interests with their abilities.

“What momentum year is really about is for institutions like ours to look at all of our processes in terms of how well we coordinate all our resources,” he added.

The momentum year can also improve efficiencies for UNG. After all, there is only so much faculty and class space available.

And time and resources can grow thin when students are “swirling around” and creating a bottleneck by jumping from major to major, Van Sickle said.

“If you do a better job of getting them into the right fit, you can take those resources and put them somewhere else,” he said.

UNG has already “folded in some pieces” of the momentum year within its broader freshman orientation program.

The remaining challenge?

“In terms of bringing this to full implementation, it’s really an issue of staffing,” Van Sickle said.

What is Momentum Year? 

• Helping students make a “purposeful choice” when selecting a program of study
• Assisting students in developing an “academic mindset” that promotes academic success
• Clearly sequenced pathways that include in the first year:
• A total of 30 credit hours
• Nine credit hours in “meta-major” focus area
• Core English and math courses

Source: University System of Georgia

[Read more at Gainesville Times] Read More

Tennessee community colleges see highest graduation rate, enrollment increase

The College System of Tennessee has seen a growth in enrollment and Tennessee Promise and Tennessee Reconnect participants, as well as the highest graduation rate recorded.

Enrollment in the College System has grown slightly, with 88,352 students enrolled in community colleges in the system, according to the preliminary numbers.

Numbers were announced at the Board of Regents committee meetings on Thursday. Those numbers could slightly change throughout the semester, but show an increasing enrollment since 2016, according to Executive Vice Chancellor for Policy and Strategy Russ Deaton.

“That downward trend we’ve seen has turned around,” Deaton said, adding that he predicted enrollment would continue to grow.

Nationwide, enrollment in community colleges has been decreasing since 2010, according to a report from Inside Higher Ed. When the Great Recession ended and the national unemployment rate began falling, fewer people were attending two-year colleges.

Highest three-year graduation rate

The College System of Tennessee has also recorded the highest three-year graduation rate in the history of the system. The three-year graduation rate tracks first-time, full-time freshmen through the summer of their third year and counts who graduates.

The graduation rate for the 2015 to 2018 group was 23.7 percent, which is a 10.1 percentage point growth from the 2010 to 2013 rate. Deaton said that while an increased graduation rate is a success, there are still challenges.

Deaton said the graduation rate tracks graduation of first-time, full-time freshman, and many of the students enrolled in community colleges do not fall into that category. He said there is also a gap in the graduation rate when broken down by race “that needs to be addressed.”

With higher enrollment and graduation rates, the system has also seen an 82 percent increase in the number of awards given from 2009 to 2018.

In 2009, there were 8,370 awards (associate’s degrees and certificates) given. In 2018, that had increased to 15,240 awards given.

“This is the product of years and years of hard work,” Deaton said.

Tennessee Promise, Reconnect participants higher this year

According to preliminary enrollment numbers, the College System of Tennessee also has higher numbers of Tennessee Reconnect and Tennessee Promise participants this year.

The number of Tennessee Reconnect students outnumber the number of Tennessee Promise students, with almost 14,700 Reconnect participants and over 14,500 Promise participants.

Participants in Tennessee Promise have also become more diverse, according to Amy Moreland, Director of Policy. The number of black, Hispanic and underrepresented minorities participating in Tennessee Promise in the system have all increased since 2015.

“As Promise participation has increased, the makeup has grown slightly more diverse,” Moreland said.

The Board of Regents also formally adopted increased Drive to 55 goals for the system. The new goals were created after conversations with Gov. Bill Haslam about the system’s success with Drive to 55, Deaton said.

The new goals will add 26,667 award recipients by 2025, or an annual increase of 2,963 award recipients for the system. The goals for the system are now 14,895 awards given annually and 134,055 total awards for the time period of 2017-2025.

“At this point, Reconnecters outnumber Tennessee Promise, which is quite extraordinary,” Deaton said.

The full Board of Regents is scheduled to meet on Friday at 10:30 a.m. EST at Dyersburg State Community College. The meeting will be live-streamed on the system’s website.

[Read more at Knoxville News Sentinel]

 

Read More