4 Schools Plot ​“Turnarounds”

Revitalized classroom libraries. Brand new 3D printers. Enhanced automotive and construction career programs. New part-time tutors.

Those are among the suggested plans for new state money coming in to town to boost four ​“low-performance” schools.

Those ideas are among plans in the process of approval by the Board of Education for four ​“low-performance” schools that were selected to received School Improvement grant funds this year.

James Hillhouse High School, Augusta Lewis Troup School, Wexler/Grant Community School, and High School In The Community (HSC) have selected to receive a total of $1.4 million under the second round of state ​“school improvement grants under the Opportunity District ESSA SIG program. The grant is presented yearly and continues for up to four years.

Now the district needs to figure out how to spend the money.

Instructional Leadership Superintendent Viviana Conner invited the schools’ principals to present their four plans, which were then approved Monday night by the Board of Education’s Finance and Operations Committee.

The next step will require the full Board of Education’s approval. Once this happens a final approval is needed from the state.

The four schools were selected by the state based on their need for ​“turnaround” or ​“focus” improvements. That means each school needs comprehensive support and improvement (turnaround) or targeted support and improvement (focus). These classifications were determined by the states 2018 – 2019 Next Generation Accountability report to identify the two types of low-performing schools.

Turnaround schools fall into the lowest-performing 5 percent in the state. They include any public high school with a graduation rate below 70 percent, or a Title I school with a consistently underperforming subgroup.

Focus schools are schools with one or more consistently underperforming English language arts (ELA), Math, or Graduation Rate groups.

The four schools established five collective priorities for the total allocation; academic learning, youth and family engagement, operational efficiencies, culture and climate, and talented educators.

Each school leadership team crafted plans based on Title I guidelines and the NHPS core curriculum and values. The allocation amounts for each school were determined through a personal needs assessment which also determined priority areas for improvement.

The Monday presentations showed that much of the schools’ spending will be focused on increasing staffing, getting new or enhancing technology, and addressing students social and emotional learning.

The Breakdown

Troup was allocated $355,000. Troup Principal Eugene Foreman Jr. said his plans consist of hiring part-time tutors and an early literacy facilitator, additional professional development for administration, creating more classroom libraries to allow students to take home books, and getting more math materials for in-class and at home lessons.

By the end of the year, Troup aims to increase the average K‑3 literacy assessment by 10 percent, increase the reading inventory for grades 4 through 8 by 10 percent, and increase the iReady math inventory score by 10 percent for K‑8 students. 

HSC was allocated $355,000. HSC Building Leader Cari Strand presented plans focused on expanding on the school’s successful past programming. They include expanding the school’s partnership with intervention program ALIVE (Animated Learning by Integrating and Validating Experience) to provide students with social and emotional support; enhancing science resources for project-based learning; boosting HSC’s Next Level Justify initiative to ​“infuse the school with math resources” to teach mathematical thinking across all disciplines, including purchasing four 3‑D printers; and holding more events for ​“Beyond HSC” college and career readiness programs.

“Science and math resources have proven particularly expensive, and the SIG finally gives us the opportunity to purchase some supplies that will allow the teachers in those areas to modernize and revolutionize the work that their doing in their classes around projects,” Strand said.

Hillhouse was allocated $333,288. Hillhouse Principal Glen Worthy presented plans to improve the school’s student engagement and graduation rates. This will include hiring additional part-time personnel, adding professional development resources for teachers and administration, and building up the school’s automotive and construction career programs. The overall goals for the investments are to decrease the school’s chronic absenteeism rate from 32 percent in 2020 – 2021 to 25 percent in 2022 – 2023 and increase the rate of students meeting both benchmarks on the SAT from 15 percent in this past spring to 35 percent in spring 2022.

Wexler was allocated $355,000. Wexler Principal David Diah presented plans to improve the school’s academic resources and culture and climate resources. It will pay consultants to help teachers address the main causes in the classroom leading to low literacy rates and to report student behavior with the school community to provide support and parents. A larger portion of the funds will be spent on academic supplies for the classrooms, Diah said. This will include improving and updating all grade’s classroom libraries.

“The bulk of the money this year, I’ve decided to put it towards not just consultants — because we have done the consultant stuff — but I want it to go toward our students and our teachers and staff. So that we have resources in the school and not just giving it away,” Diah said.

Wexler will also invest in offering incentives to decrease its chronic absenteeism from 32.8 percent in 2018 – 2019 and 26.1 percent in 2019 – 2020 to 20.9 percent in 2021 – 2022.

View the principals’ presentations here.