The Benwood Plan:

Hamilton County, Tennessee, engaged in a multi-year effort to improve teaching in a group of eight central city elementary schools. This reform, known as the Benwood Initiative, was funded with $5 million from the Chattanooga-based Benwood Foundation. Student achievement improved dramatically as a result of this initiative. The Benwood successes were not due to just new recruitment strategies but a host of efforts that enabled existing teachers to improve the quality of their instruction. Using “value-added teacher effectiveness data, the author shows that existing teachers at the Benwood schools improved steadily. In addition, a multitude of other factors were at play in the Benwood success, including strong district leadership, collaborative union-district relations, and shifts in central office and school staffing roles. (8 pp.)