For any community to thrive, their public schools must be outstanding.
This applies to Chattanooga, too, and especially with all the new businesses and industry moving into town, the young generation of the community that will be poised for these positions must have outstanding education, be taught by great teachers and be led by amazing principals, says Daniel Challener, the president of the Public Education Foundation (PEF) here in town. Challener and his small staff at PEF are using a variety of methods to help public schools get stronger so that the kids of this community will have all the opportunities coming to them.
“Our work is about helping to develop the strengths and knowledge of the next generation of principals, of math and science teachers, and the next generation of students to make sure if they want to go to college they have that option. With the industries coming in, we want our students to be prepared to be hired instead of out of state or out of country hires coming in,” he says.
While in high school, Challener began working with kids in his community who were struggling in school. During his graduate work at the University of Rhode Island, he focused on finding what helped students succeed and what key elements in a community could help students be successful. While there, he was part of a 10-year community-based study to improve public schools and determine why there was such a high rate of dropouts in schools.
When he was offered the position in Chattanooga at the Public Education Foundation and he and his wife saw Chattanooga, he says they realized the enormous potential here and in the school system, and saw this as a great place to raise their three kids.
The PEF was founded in 1988 with the mission to improve student achievement in Hamilton County public schools. Everything they do is clearly focused to help students and people who work with students achieve more and learn more. Challener says they believe that students learn more when the teaching is outstanding, and therefore work with teachers a lot, as well as working with principals to be instructional leaders. Recently they have focused in on three areas more intensely to help the public schools.
The first is the Principal Leadership Academy, through which they work alongside the Chamber of Commerce, the school district and UTC to train a next generation of principals. The second initiative they are focused on is the Teach Here program in an effort to help generate a supply of hires for the difficult to fill math and science teacher positions, particularly in middle and high schools and in urban schools.
To do this, they have recruited people with a math and science background who worked in the world and are now thinking about becoming teachers to bring their knowledge from the real world to the classroom. These applicants are paired to work with an outstanding mentor teacher for a whole year. The PEF has also just received more funding for the program so as to expand it into elementary and middle school math and science teachers’ classrooms.
“One of these teachers in
the program spent years in the city hospital in Milwaukee working with patients and technology, another worked as an accountant, another was in the navy and brings enormous perspective of things in the real world and how the learning is applied,” Challener says.
The third current focus of the PEF is on helping students go to college. They have placed an adviser in every high school whose job it is to help students navigate the college application process and work side by side with guidance counselors to help students succeed in their college selection process.
PEF works with Hamilton County schools and asks them what the schools have the greatest need for. Then together, PEF and the school construct an agenda to meet their needs, Challener says.
After the PEF identifies the needs of the schools, they then go to look for resources through national and local foundations, local corporations and donors to pay for these programs, since the district has a very limited budget and the PEF is itself a non-profit organization.
Because resources are so tight, PEF looks for volunteers, especially to help advisers with the college preparation work, paperwork and many other areas. Their volunteer coordinator, Kate Skonberg, can connect people to a school where their interests in these and other areas to help in are.
With the newly raised standards, PEF has made one of this year’s goals to work with educators so that they know the new standards and the best practices for all schools and can share them to improve student achievement. PEF will also continue to develop their first generation of math and science teachers and the first generation from the Principal Leadership Academy.
“The new standards are difficult, but ultimately good because it raises the bar for our students, and we see that students need to achieve at a higher level,” Challener says. “It’s no good any longer to just be the best in Tennessee. We are competing for jobs all across the country and the globe.”
Through his position on the state advisory and oversight committee for Race to the Top, Challener is making sure the work his staff does at PEF is aligned with what the state is now requiring.
“It’s an exciting time in the state because there is more focus on education now more than ever,” he says. “The country really realizes that to maintain a standard of living and leadership role in the world, our public schools have got to be the best in the world.”
The success of the PEF is due in large part to the passion of the staff, says Challener, and their belief in the mission for public schools.
“We are absolutely convinced that this is the most important work we could do with our lives. There is nothing more important than improving public schools in Hamilton County,” he says.
To volunteer with the PEF call Kate Skonberg at 423-710-1775. More information about the PEF can be found at www.pefchattanooga.org.