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  1. Shift Chattanooga: Looking Forward Thursday, September 15, 2011

    Last week President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress to propose the American Jobs Act. He spoke of the greatness of our country and the essential role that public education has in assuring the American Dream. “This is America. Every child deserves a great school -– and we can give it to them, if we act now,” he said. Regardless of political affiliation, most politicians agree that without marked change in our education system, we risk our future. As the Republican-lead House Education & the Workforce Committee website states, “Education is critical to the economic well-being of our country and the future prosperity of our children.” It quickly becomes easy, though, to become swept into angry division of how to make tomorrow better than today. But, as President Kennedy said, “Our problems are man-made -– therefore they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants.”

    And we know that we can make Hamilton County’s public schools the best in the nation. Believing this, Shift began its first weekly educational ‘brief’ yesterday with links to several trending stories in the local and national conversation about education, important statistics concerning the growth of Hamilton County schools, and information about two upcoming events, free and open to the public. We believe that the weekly emails are a great way to keep you informed about education in Chattanooga and our nation. We’d like to invite you to join the list by visiting the Shift website. 

    Excerpts from the First Weekly Shift Brief

    Featured Data
    Hamilton County Enrollment Rising:
    1st day student enrollment: 39,418
    5th day student enrollment: 41,559
    Current student enrollment: 42,248

    More Students than Last Year:
    271 more in elementary school
    251 more in middle school
    97 fewer in high school

    Featured Local News Links
    Superintendent Rick Smith tells Chamber of Commerce, “We’ve got to get busy” because East Hamilton schools are over capacity (almost 2,100 children in 6-12)

    474 students have transferred out of the 17 ‘high priority schools’ (NCLB transfers)

    Featured Shift Conversation

    SHIFT CONVERSATIONS- Dan Challener from ShiftCha on Vimeo.

    Teachers go into the profession, not to become wealthy, but to make a difference in the lives of children—Dan Challener, President of the Public Education Foundation.

    To receive easily accessible education information through Shift’s weekly ‘brief’ visit the Shift website and sign up. 

    Posted by Dave Walker in Education