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The Innovation. Alcoa City Schools set a goal of continuing to increase their Ready Graduate rate from 78 percent to 80 percent and began to consider how they could use the High School Innovation Grant to make progress in this area. They looked at their data to ask where they had weak spots in their subgroups around their Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways and found there was a gap in health sciences. They also worked to understand more about the students who were enrolled in these courses. They found that over past year they had the highest number of economically disadvantaged students and students with individualized education programs (IEPs) in their Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) class.

With this clear gap, and particularly for students who need additional support financially and academically to be successful, Alcoa City Schools applied for grant funds to increase student access to early postsecondary opportunities in health sciences by leveraging the following innovative approaches.

• Time And Space: This program gives students the opportunity during the day to take courses at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology in Knoxville (TCAT-Knoxville) and engage in clinicals at Blount Memorial Hospital and area long-term care facilities to get real-world experience and apply their skills.

• Partnerships: This model began with intentional engagement of district health science teachers to discuss the need to move the anatomy and physiology course into the health sciences cluster for conversion into a dual enrollment course. From there, the district worked to deepen their partnership with TCAT-Knoxville to finalize the dual enrollment offering. Alcoa City Schools also worked to deepen their partnerships with Blount Memorial Hospital and a long-term care facility partner in the region to give students more access to real-world experiences.

• Modes Of Learning: Alcoa City Schools provided students with one-on-one meetings with the college and career coach while they were off campus to support more real-time conversations about their experiences and goals and to help them take next steps in the program. Also, given the interest in the program, the district worked to expand the Health Sciences CTE cluster to include additional blocks of CNA dual enrollment courses and a new practical nursing course.

By expanding and reconfiguring the programming in the health sciences cluster, Alcoa City Schools is working to put more students on a path to earning a certificate in CNA before high school graduation, transitioning directly to the TCAT to continue work on their certificate in practical nursing, and giving students access to career exploration in the field of health care.

The Grant. Alcoa City Schools was awarded $758,134.70 for this innovation. The district has allocated funds to:    

• Hire a dedicated college and career coach for students enrolled in these programs
• Hire a paraprofessional to specifically focus on supporting students in the program with IEPs
• Offer financial support to students who would need it for uniforms and textbooks
• Purchase a van to transport students to TCAT-Knoxville, Blount Memorial Hospital, and the long-term care facility partner
• Purchase equipment to mirror equipment used in corresponding TCAT courses
• Pay the health sciences teachers a stipend to support their efforts to learn the new anatomy and physiology coursework, plan new lessons and syllabi, and travel to the TCAT to observe instruction and deepen partnerships

Lessons Learned. Alcoa City Schools has learned key lessons over the first year around how to strategically spend down grant funds and thoughtfully engage teachers and external partners in new work.   

• Pace yourself on spending down funds. While Alcoa City Schools spent down part of their grant funds in the first year to support the salaries of the college and career coach, the paraprofessional, student textbooks and uniforms, and the vehicle, they also worked to save a significant portion of the funding for a second year. By the end of the first year, the health sciences teachers had a clear sense of equipment they wanted to buy, an interest in adding another skills course in the spring to support students further, and other ideas about ways in which funds could be spent to continue to build and improve the program. By giving themselves that space, they will now be able to more strategically spend funds to best support students.
• Deepen relationships with TCAT instructors as a priority. The reality is that TCAT instructors will be evaluated on post-tests and passing rates for all students enrolled, and opening up their classes to high school students is a big shift. Take the time to understand how TCAT instructors would like to partner on supporting high school students to be successful in their courses and ensure consistent communication about progress.
• Embrace new learning for teachers as well as students. Adding new courses, particularly dual enrollment courses, takes a great deal of time and energy from teachers as they work to deepen their own content knowledge, consider how to develop a syllabus and lesson plans, and invest in relationships with postsecondary institutions. Expect a learning curve and be prepared to support them as they navigate new content and new partnerships.

Sustaining The Work. Based on previous enrollment data in the health sciences cluster, Alcoa City Schools estimated they would have 11-13 students enroll in the new dual-credit option. However, they ended up with 37 dual-enrolled students, requiring them to offer an additional block for the clinical dual enrollment course. While Alcoa City Schools invested in a career coach and a paraprofessional, they were able to increase the size of their health sciences program and offer students access to dual enrollment without hiring additional teaching staff. Additionally, the paraprofessional supporting the program is a former health sciences student from the district who is also currently working through a Grow Your Own program with the goal of making her the full-time college and career coach as well as the paraprofessional for the program.

Keeping track of this kind of data and having a clear communication plan is also central to the district’s sustainability strategy. Alcoa City Schools is also proactively working to capture and share their learnings and progress with their school board, who recently voted to continue to fund testing fees and student licenses for early postsecondary opportunities. While there is potential for ongoing equipment needs, the district believes that, given the clear need for health-care staff in the region and the greater than expected interest from district students in this field, TCAT-Knoxville and Blount Memorial Hospital will continue to see the value of their deep partnership and allow students ongoing access to the best equipment available on their sites.

Learn More. To learn more, contact the Patty Thomas, CTE Director, Alcoa City Schools.

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The Innovation. For years, Bristol Tennessee City Schools (BTCS) had been considering how it could adjust the support it was providing to the approximately 10 percent of its high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors who persistently struggle to succeed academically, attend school consistently, and, ultimately, graduate on time. They realized that, in many cases, they were asking even more of these students academically — enrolling them in additional credit recovery courses on top of their academic course load, where they were already struggling to succeed. Using a combination of attendance records and credit accumulation, alongside recommendations from guidance counselors — particularly working to identify students who reported having anxiety and believed they would benefit from a closer environment and smaller class sizes — the district identified an initial group of 85 students they believed would be most at risk for not graduating on time.

With this data in hand, BTCS applied for a High School Innovation Grant with a proposal that worked to reimagine an alternative high school experience for these students through a newly established Viking Academy — an off-site program for students who are struggling with credit accumulation and attendance or who are facing life circumstances that have created barriers to consistent engagement in a traditional high school. At Viking Academy, students:

• Continue to focus deeply on rigorous academic content to ensure credit recovery with more individualized instruction in English, math, science, and social studies, and
• Have increased access to specialized instruction, coursework, and work-based learning experiences in high-demand career fields that include the automotive, MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing), agriculture, and HVAC industries.

To build on these existing opportunities, BTCS grounded their grant proposal on the following innovations:

• Time And Space: Upon announcement of the grant opportunity, BTCS began to envision the newly donated Friendship Career Center as the location of their off-campus Viking Academy — a recently gifted building from a local business partner and district community partner. The building had previously been used as a Volvo dealership and was already equipped with shop bay lifts, making it an ideal location for this program. Identifying an off-campus location for this program was also an intentional decision to signal to students and the community that the Viking Academy program is an investment in students and a positive opportunity to make deeper connections to workforce and postsecondary experiences. It would also offer students a smaller campus experience in which to engage in coursework and deepen relationships with peers and staff.

• Partnerships: BTCS began their work by ensuring all critical voices were at the table to design the Viking Academy model, including: the CTE Director, the secondary supervisor, a student services provider, the middle school principal, and key community members to represent the needs and priorities of Bristol City more broadly. In terms of partnership with a postsecondary institution, BTCS is working with the local TCAT and Northeast State Community College to certify Tennessee High School CTE teachers as adjunct faculty at these institutions. This will allow Tennessee High School faculty to provide dual enrollment opportunities for students at a greatly reduced cost.

• Modes Of Learning: Students enrolled in Viking Academy are placed into cohorts of 12-14 students to ensure core content teachers are able to provide students with more individualized support. Viking Academy offers additional experiences and supports for students that are not a part of traditional high school programming, including: multiple in-person TCAT trips, career assessment surveys, transportation to get students’ driver’s licenses, and other supports. Additionally, after a year of attendance at Viking Academy, if students catch up on credit attainment, they have the choice to reenroll at Tennessee High School. Viking Academy is meant as a support, and students may need or want to participate in it for different amounts of time.

By enrolling students in these courses, BTCS works to put more students on the path to earning a credential in one of these areas or to continue their learning in these fields through a two-year degree program at a local community college or Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT).

The Grant. Bristol Tennessee City Schools was awarded $2,000,000 for this innovation. The district has allocated funds to: 

• Hire a full-time on-site administrator to oversee the management of the staff and programming
• Hire a career coach to administer career assessment surveys and support students in responding to their results
• Purchase automotive diagnostic equipment
• Purchase furniture for the building intended to create collaborative spaces for students to work together
• Purchase equipment for the district’s agricultural program — which was also envisioned in this grant
• Purchase an activity bus and two vans to support transportation from Viking Academy to work-based learning sites

Lessons Learned. Bristol Tennessee City Schools has learned several key lessons over the first year of implementation around how to strategically staff their program and engage the community.

• Engage and invest the community early in the vision and goals of the grant. The support of the community has been central to the success of Viking Academy. As the vision for Viking Academy began to take shape, district staff met with community and business leaders to invest them in the goal of using the Friendship Career Center and its resources to support students who were struggling the most with the traditional high school model. Leaders began to understand the potential regional impact of investing in these students and in their academic and professional success as a way to also elevate the overall community and workforce. BTCS has also worked to foster a strong relationship with the city of Bristol, such that the school resource officer (SRO) salary for the program is paid for by the city. Similarly, the career counselor position for Viking Academy is contributed by a local business partner. These strong partnerships are reducing the overall cost of this program and are critical to its success.
• Dedicate the necessary capacity to design, implement, and manage the work. The administrator of Viking Academy is a full-time position and has been given the ownership and time to fully manage all aspects of the program, including: hiring, community engagement, data and financial management, and construction oversight. The has allowed the program to remain focused and on track during its launch year. 
• Staff your program thoughtfully. Identifying teachers who have a passion for students who need more support to be successful is of paramount importance. Not only do the teachers at Viking Academy need to have deep content expertise, they also need to be relationship-oriented and ready to dedicate capacity to deepening bonds with students quickly. These are not the kind of roles that should be assigned. These are roles that should be offered to and staffed by teachers who are eager to engage in this work.

Sustaining The Work. Viking Academy plans to enroll 75 students for the 2022-23 school year. They have engaged all of them in a conversation about the program and almost every student is excited about attending. BTCS believes their commitment to sharing about the work and clearly communicating the opportunities provided by the program have been key to its enrollment success. They have also been cost neutral with the majority of their staffing decisions by:

• Identifying core subject area teachers for English, math, science, and social studies who were excited about transferring to the program
• Funding the salary of an HVAC instructor by not refilling a retired teacher position for an audio/visual course where enrollment had been shrinking over the last several years — though they plan to offer a bonus in the future as this has been a hard-to-fill position
• Leveraging strong relationships with community partners to fund an SRO and career counselor position

BTCS also highlighted the need to track program data and share successes as a core component of their sustainability strategy. Results from the first year were strong, and BTCS is sharing their story with the local Rotary Club, county commission, and other business and community partners. Specifically, for the 15 seniors in the pilot cohort, they dramatically increased their credit attainment rate — students earned more credits in their first semester at Viking Academy than they did for the entirety of the previous school year in a traditional high school. Additionally, 100 percent of students received a high school diploma, with 13 graduating on time and two finishing up their diploma with coursework over the summer. The district believes that tracking and sharing this kind of data will foster ongoing support for the program beyond the one-time funds from the grant.

Learn More. To learn more, visit the Viking Academy website or contact Kelly Vance, Tennessee high school assistant principal and Viking Academy administrator.

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The Innovation. Jackson-Madison County School System (JMCSS) envisioned a secondary school landscape in their district where each of its seven high schools and the district Workforce Development Center would house at least one of twelve Innovation Impact Institutes focused on a different high-demand occupation that any student in the district could access as they identify career fields of interest to them. The overall goal of the Innovation Impact Institute model is to prepare JMCSS students for postsecondary education and careers in high-demand occupations — promoting academic and workforce excellence by engaging students with industry-standard equipment, curriculum, and teaching methods in nontraditional, authentic learning environments. Given the district’s open enrollment approach to high school, students now not only have an opportunity to select their school of choice but can further ground that decision in their interest in a particular focus area of the school’s associated Innovation Impact Institute.

To reach this vision, the Innovation Impact Institutes build on several preexisting programs and structures, including: 1) The district’s current career and technical education (CTE), humanities, and early college high school programs; 2) The work-based learning model already underway for manufacturing courses known as Local Options and Opportunities Program (L.O.O.P.); and 3) The virtual academy model that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. New opportunities for students infused into these existing programs are at the core of what makes an Innovation Impact Institute, allowing students to:

• Gain stackable credentials in workforce certifications
• Engage in work-based learning opportunities (paid and unpaid internships)
• Take dual enrollment and dual credit courses

Given these strong foundations, and rather than reinventing the wheel, JMCSS chose instead to infuse new opportunities and partnerships into existing courses of study and modes of learning by planning for the following innovations.

• Time And Space: Innovation Impact Institutes are intentionally designed to ensure students have an opportunity to engage in work-based learning at times that work for them and for the employer. Work-based learning can be any block of the day, and JMCSS also piloted an approach where students are able to engage in work-based learning at 3:00 p.m. and begin school the next day on a delayed schedule. To fit in all of the new courses, JMCSS offered some classes that technically fell “after school.” To accommodate these courses, teachers were paid a stipend to teach these classes after school.

• Partnerships: JMCSS leveraged a consistent engagement model for the development of each Innovation Impact Institute. They met with the district executive team to discuss potential areas of focus for the institutes and brought each high school building administrator into the conversation to talk to them about their vision for their schools. In these meetings, they discussed the need to build on existing programs in the school or about a school’s interest in offering new programming. In all cases, new programming had to be aligned to a high-demand career in Tennessee, and, where current teachers may experience a change or evolution of their course, they were supported with funds to go on “inspiration trips” for inspiration and space to offer up their own innovative ideas for how to propel programming forward to align to the Innovation Impact Institute model. As external partners were identified, they offered expertise in programming, guidance for specific skills needed in their occupational area, and opportunities for student on-site experiences. The goal is for each institute to have a postsecondary and local business partner to support and guide the work.  

• Modes Of Learning: JMCSS is housing the new Institute of STEM and Digital Entrepreneurship at the virtual school, providing students with flexibility and a self-paced curriculum for work-based learning opportunities. The district was also strategic in its approach to supporting all students with work-based learning. The district expanded access to the course to all 11th and 12th graders, in addition to students enrolled in a CTE course, and created a team dedicated to supporting students across all institutes. The JMCSS L.O.O.P. coordinator and two retired part-time teachers, whose offices are housed at one of the manufacturing partner sites, offer academic support for students enrolled in virtual courses and ensure that students overcome work challenges. Additionally, JMCSS teachers completed the TDOE work-based learning course for certification and follow the TDOE guidelines for work-based learning.

By building on existing programs and developing a consistent process for program expansion, JMCSS is able to capitalize on economies of scale across all Innovation Impact Institutes and is laying a foundation that will allow them to be responsive to future industry needs and student aspirations.

The Grant. JMCSS was awarded $2 million for this innovation. The district has allocated funds to:   

• Establish the department of innovation in the district and fund two additional positions through the grant to build out the staffing, including an instructional facilitator and an impact coordinator
• Hire new teachers where needed for Innovation Impact Institutes that reflected new programming
• Offer stipends for teachers to teach courses after school including a summer work-based learning class
• Fund inspiration trips for teachers in each institute to support making connections with postsecondary and/or industry partners to continue to support the program and identify innovative practices
• Fund industry field trips for students to make connections between academics and postsecondary planning
• Purchase equipment to update existing programs and establish new programs
• Provide industry-specific professional development that aligns with potential microcredentials for students
• Fund Naviance as a program for high school guidance counselors to provide ongoing support to students for career and college exploration, planning, and data collection on student progress
• Purchase curriculum and instructional materials to support microcredentialing in CTE

Lessons Learned. JMCSS learned several key lessons during their first year of implementation, specifically around the value of pushing the envelope when it comes to innovations in education and in the importance of investing deeply in new and current teaching staff to support their new programs.

• Seek inspiration that is “out of the education box.” JMCSS did not only want to elevate their CTE, humanities, and early college programs with stackable credentials, work-based learning, and dual enrollment or dual credit components, they also wanted to make sure that the content of the institutes was as relevant as possible to the fields they were inviting students to explore.  Innovation Impact Institute instructors met in January during in-service for an innovation jump-start meeting. A local industry partner provided a session on innovative thinking that challenged instructors to apply systematic thinking to creative solutions. Instructors were invited to plan an inspiration trip and to think big — a push which resulted in innovations across all of the institutes. The district found that partners outside of education were eager to engage with them, and teachers were inspired to elevate their work to continue their own learning. Results from this push include:
  
  
  • A new focus on solar energy within the construction program at JMCSS
  • A partnership with a global biotech company that develops, manufactures, and markets products for life science research and clinical diagnostic markets
  • Support from a world-renowned author who was eager to support the district with storytelling strategies for the JMCSS institute model
  • Tours for students and teachers to places like the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and the headquarters of a nationally recognized periodical
  • Participation in the Supreme Court Summer Institute, where the criminal justice teacher was able to expand his content knowledge and network with legal professionals, the solicitor general, and a supreme court justice

• Work hard to recruit industry experts and to support their development as new teachers. JMCSS focused their attention on outreach and recruitment to industry partners, which resulted in their opportunity to hire a top-notch hospital professional as well as a new digital, audio, production teacher directly from their fields. While the district acknowledges that both of these new team members were willing to make less as a teacher than in their current positions, they saw the benefits of a schedule with more time off and in the opportunity to engage students in their field. These professionals have also been a tremendous asset in forging partnerships within their industries to support their respective institutes. In terms of recruitment strategies, the district made the decision to hire the new digital, audio, production staff member months ahead of when the design of the institute would be complete given his interest at the time. Though this created a cost for the district, it allowed them to engage him in new teacher training well ahead of his first day in the classroom — a practice that the district is considering as a more formal approach as it allows industry professionals time to acclimate to district life and learn more about their new profession as an educator.

• Match the scale of your initiative to a right-sized and strategically staffed central team. The vision to scale the Innovation Impact Institute model in one year required the allocation of three dedicated staff members, prompting the district to establish a department of innovation. The district named a chief innovation officer and invested grant funds to hire two new staff members to support the work. Importantly, JMCSS was strategic in its approach to staffing this department. They hired staff members connected to local industry — who also had skills like web development — who could help quickly foster partnerships and tell the story of their work.

Sustaining The Work. Though taking on new and revamped program development across their high schools over the last year took a tremendous amount of work and commitment from local stakeholders and current staff, JMCSS felt confident investing in their approach to develop Innovation Impact Institutes. Currently, they have a 52 percent CTE course enrollment rate across the district, ensuring students would be enrolled in the institutes that were built on existing programs. This approach also limited the number of new staff they would need to hire, and the district plans to absorb the cost of any new staff. JMCSS also worked with high school leaders to confirm the areas of focus for any new institutes, requiring that any program selected was aligned to a high-demand occupation regionally and could offer the opportunity for students to earn stackable credentials that would prepare them for employment opportunities after high school should they want to pursue that option. JMCSS also assessed which of their programs were under-enrolled across the district and made shifts as needed.

In terms of ongoing financial sustainability, most institutes also include a plan for a student enterprise venture — a project that will allow the instructor or students to sell a product or offer a service where profits will go back into the program. For example:

• Several institutes are teaming together to build and sell a tiny house
• The digital arts production teacher has become a certified instructor in one of the software packages used by the institute and will offer courses on the JMCSS campus
• The advanced agriculture institute is producing vegetables and flowers for sale
• The manufacturing institute is using its laser printer to create items for sale to the public

Learn More. To learn more, visit the JMCSS Department of Innovation website or contact Dr. Teresa McSweeney.

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The Innovation. The Clarksville-Montgomery County School System (CMCSS) started an Early Technical College (ETC) at the Clarksville campus of TCAT-Dickson four years ago. At the time, the TCAT campus was primarily serving adult learners and its facilities were underutilized during a large portion of the day. The ETC provides students with personalized, hands-on learning opportunities that can lead to the attainment of both college credit and a high school diploma, technical and professional skill development, and industry certifications.

CMCSS used funds from the Innovative Schools Model grant to bolster and expand their Early Technical College programming.

• Time And Space: Students take courses on the Clarksville campus of TCAT-Dickson to meet the requirements for high school graduation and to earn dual enrollment credits in one of five pathways (diesel-powered equipment technology, HVAC/refrigeration, industrial electrical maintenance, pharmacy technology, or prepractical nursing). Students attend classes from 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. each day. The 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. time slot is set aside for CMCSS coursework, professional skill development, and lunch. During the 2:30-5:30 p.m. time slot, students participate in TCAT coursework for their chosen pathway. Students who have finished necessary coursework are permitted to participate in paid internship experiences off-site until 1:30 p.m. CMCSS provides students with transportation to the TCAT campus.

• Partnerships: Leaders from CMCSS and the Clarksville campus of TCAT-Dickson coordinate closely to ensure students are successful. TCAT uses dual enrollment funding to hire instructors for each program. CMCSS provides additional funds to cover any remaining instructor costs. A formal memorandum of understanding (MOU) is in place to ensure students can seamlessly enroll in TCAT as adult learners after graduation. The CMCSS operations department, A&G Diesel, and the City of Clarksville also partner with the CMCSS instruction department to host ETC students in aligned internship and job-shadowing experiences.

• Modes Of Learning: Students use an online platform to complete the courses needed to fulfill the Tennessee graduation requirements. Learning lab teachers supplement on-line learning through in-person instruction and extra help or study sessions. Students may participate in on-the-job work-based learning experiences with local employers.

The Grant. CMCSS received $1.5 million for this innovation. The district has allocated funds to:

• Update five portable buildings. Four to serve as learning labs for English, math, science and social studies courses, and the fifth to serve as an office and collaborative space for the ETC administrator, success coach, and teachers
• Add a restroom portable to ensure access when the TCAT main campus buildings are closed
• Hire additional learning lab teachers
• Hire a year-round success coach who developed a success skills curriculum and serves as a liaison with businesses
• Make the ETC administrator position full-time rather than half-time, as it was previously
• Purchase a van to transport students to and from work experiences, as needed

Lessons Learned. CMCSS learned several key lessons as they have expanded their ETC programming. These lessons include the importance of ensuring adequate staff capacity, maintaining strong partnerships, identifying the students who will benefit most from ETC programming, and starting career exploration and planning in middle school.

• Allocate staff to own key program responsibilities and prepare for challenges hiring qualified CTE instructors. Staffing is critical to the success of the program. CMCSS’s addition of in-person core-content area learning lab teachers has improved the quality of core-content instruction, student mastery of core-content standards, and buy-in to online coursework.CMCSS also hired a year-round success coach who developed a success skills curriculum and serves as a liaison with businesses. This person has been critical for ramping up work-based learning experiences for students. Recruiting and hiring qualified CTE instructors is a challenge, especially given the impact of COVID-19 over the last two years.
• Build strong partnerships with your local TCAT by establishing formal agreements and scheduling regular times to communicate and collaborate. An MOU between CMCSS and the Clarksville campus of TCAT-Dickson permits Early Technical College students to seamlessly enroll as adult students at TCAT after graduation.  
• Use data to identify students who will benefit the most from programming and find multiple ways to communicate the value of the program to families. Identifying the students who may benefit the most from the Early Technical College and communicating the opportunity in a compelling manner is important. Despite significant outreach to 10^th grade students and families during the school year, CMCSS is not getting as many students as they would like to apply to the early technical high school. Some parents think it is a good option, but not for their child. Although CMCSS permits students to return to their home high school for senior activities and graduation, the prospect of missing out on sports and other traditional high school experiences could be preventing some students from applying. Moving forward, CMCSS will use YouScience assessment data to help target students for the program and continue to find ways to market the program effectively to families.
• Start career exploration and postsecondary planning in middle school. Middle school students need meaningful experiences to start unpacking their interests and exploring their “why.” As CMCSS continues to strengthen the programming at their Early Technical College, they are also finding more opportunities for middle school students to engage in exploring career opportunities that match their aptitudes and interests.

Sustaining The Work. CMCSS is well on its way to sustaining expanded ETC programming beyond the life of the Innovative Schools Model grant. They have developed curricular resources that will only require minor adjustments moving forward. All classrooms, the office, and the restroom will be fully functional and furnished when the grant expires, and these should not be recurring costs. The funds for half of the teacher salaries and half of the administrator salary have been moved into the general-purpose school fund budget. The funds for the other half of each of these positions, in addition to the success coach position, will need to be moved into the general-purpose budget next school year. 

Learn More. To learn more, visit Early Technical College at TCAT or contact Dayna Paine.

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The Innovation. In partnership with Chattanooga State Community College, Hamilton County Schools (HCS) began developing a microcollege last school year as part of their effort to ensure equitable learning opportunities for all students. Previously, the district’s equity audits revealed that students’ access to early postsecondary opportunities (EPSOs) varied greatly across high schools. The initial goal of the microcollege was to provide a small cohort of students at three target high schools the opportunity to take dual enrollment courses. However, this idea did not fully align with Hamilton’s vision for ensuring all students have equitable access to advanced coursework. The goal of the microcollege evolved into ensuring all students at each target high school could take at least five dual enrollment courses before graduation. Once the microcollege program is fully established at the three target high schools, HCS plans to expand the program to all its high schools.

HCS used funds from the Innovative Schools Model grant to pilot a microcollege program at three high schools.

• Time And Space: All students can earn at least 15 hours of college credit before graduation by taking a core set of courses across five subject areas (English, math, science, history, and an elective CTE course). Some students will earn as many as 30 hours of college credit. Students take their dual enrollment courses during the regular school day on their high school campus. All dual enrollment courses count toward the high school graduation requirements. Students take most of their dual enrollment courses by the end of junior year to ensure they have enough flexibility in their senior schedule to participate in work-based learning opportunities.

• Partnerships: HCS collaborates weekly with Chattanooga State Community College to ensure the microcollege programming is successful. Additionally, HCS has partnered with the STEM School Chattanooga and the Global Center for Digital Innovation to develop a microcredentialing Program. This program provides students with organic opportunities to earn industry credentials outside of traditional CTE courses.

• Modes Of Learning: Courses are taught by professors from Chattanooga State. Students receive additional advising and progress check-ins from Chattanooga State and HCS faculty throughout a semester.

The Grant. HCS received $2 million for this innovation. The district has allocated funds to:

• Hire an EPSO coordinator
• Cover dual enrollment course costs (course textbooks)
• Provide staff professional development
• Establish a microcredentialing program
• Provide transportation for biannual student trips to Chattanooga State Community College

Lessons Learned. HCS learned several important lessons during their first year piloting the microcollege program, including how to set the best timeline for expanding the program, the importance of effective collaboration with partners, and remaining flexible in the face of unforeseen challenges.

• Learn and scale by finding the right balance between “going slow” to learn from the pilot of a new program and “going fast” to expand the program. HCS spent considerable time auditing current practices and identifying gaps in their current programing before launching the microcollege program. This process required a commitment to honest reflection and discussion among leaders. In retrospect, HCS has noted that it would have been helpful to allocate an entire year to the audit process before launching their programming. Even if this amount of time is not possible, it is important to consider the best timeline for expanding a new program.
• Prioritize partnerships by establishing and sustaining effective partnerships at the district level. Prior to launching the microcollege, HCS permitted individual principals to identify and establish partners for their high school. Shifting the management of partnerships to the district level is a process that requires dedicated staff time. As part of launching the microcollege, leaders from HCS and Chattanooga State Community College began meeting on a weekly basis to discuss curriculum, teacher training, and student supports. This regular touch point has been critical to the success of the project.  
• Remain flexible and willing to adjust to accomplish the goals of the project. When HCS launched their microcollege program, they anticipated being able to use grant funds to cover dual enrollment tuition costs. It turned out that funds could not be used this way. As a result, leaders had to pivot and find new ways to allocate the grant funds.

Sustaining The Work. HCS has prioritized establishing processes and procedures that will enable them to scale their microcollege program to all high schools. By setting a bold vision for ensuring all students have access to advanced coursework and by centralizing decisions around course offerings, partnerships, and student supports, HCS hopes to make it easier for individual high schools to adopt the microcollege program in the future. Moving forward, HCS plans to rely heavily on funding from Tennessee’s Dual Enrollment Grant Program to sustain their programming financially.

Learn More. To learn more, contact Olivia Bagby.

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