After deciding not to close Career Magnet Academy in January, the Knox County school district is doubling down its advanced academic offerings, at both CMA and other high schools.
Career Magnet Academy students can take both high school and college classes through Pellissippi State Community College as part of their regular school day. But the academy was created partly to serve students whose community high school had few advanced options. And Knox school administrators say their goal is to eliminate that gap.
John Rysewyk, chief academic officer for Knox County Schools, said the district is choosing a high school to pilot the Cambridge International curriculum for the first time next school year, although he declined to name the school.
Cambridge International is a rigorous high school curriculum and assessment that originated with Cambridge University in England. It provides a special diploma similar to the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, which emphasizes academic rigor, community service, and independent student research.
The district is talking to more high schools about starting International Baccalaureate or Cambridge International programs within two years, Rysewyk said. Bearden High and Farragut High also offered an AP seminar this year similar to the IB research course, Rysewyk said.
These programs offer a challenging high school curriculum to better prepare students for college. But some teens also want to get actual college credit if they can, so they’ll have fewer courses to pay for out of pocket later. Students who perform well enough Advanced Placement and dual-enrollment classes can receive both high school and college credit.
Bearden and Karns high schools both became “pre-AP schools” through the College Board this year, Rysewyk said. This involves instructional resources and classroom assessments to make core courses stronger, preparing more students to handle AP or other college-level courses later in high school.
All this will mean magnet schools focused on advanced academics won’t be so special.
West High used to be listed as a magnet school for International Baccalaureate. Its IB program continues, but stopped being considered a magnet in 2016. Originally IB was a pilot program at West that functioned almost like a school within a school. Those IB courses are now open to all students, Rysewyk said.
“Our goal is to get that across the board,” Rysewyk said.“What we anticipate moving forward is it won’t be as unique a program because we’re working on advanced curriculum at more schools.”
Pellissippi State also has plans to expand its partnerships with other Knox County Schools and with Blount County, said community college president Andrew Wise.
“One of the conversations we’ve had is how do we use a campus like this as a hub, where we’ve got great program offerings in things like engineering and media technology.”
Wise said the college would like students enrolled at nearby Karns and Hardin Valley high schools taking advantage of these career programs. “That’s kind of our next phase of our work with Knox County, and we’re really excited about it,“ Wise said.
Saving, and losing, big bucks
Even so, Knox County and Pellissippi have also rededicated themselves to Career Magnet Academy. Superintendent Bob Thomas had suggested closing the school or phasing it out because of its cost and low enrollment, which is at about half its capacity. But after listening to hours of public comments supporting CMA, the school board voted in January to keep it.
The school district’s earlier reconsideration of magnet school funding led to the school’s enrollment crisis, argued CMA math teacher Maria Crowe. Families that had committed to the school in February last year heard in April that all magnet funding might end, she said.
“There was a hold put on the money, and there was a question whether the funding was going to continue,” Crowe said. “Unfortunately, the families… saw that as a red flag and bailed.” By the end of May, half of them had backed out, she said.
That made the school’s costs look even worse by this January.
“There’s about a $2.5 million price tag per year on the overall school for, right now, 250 students,” Rysewyk said.
That is inflated by the college courses. The state will pay for two dual-enrollment courses per student. Normally the student must pay for anything beyond that, but at CMA, Knox County Schools picks up the tab. A big draw for some students was the chance to earn an associate’s degree for free by the time they graduate from high school.
That was what got CMA freshman Lindsay French excited. “You don’t have to pay anything out of pocket, and you have access to the Hope Scholarship your senior year,” she said. “At Hardin Valley, if you take more than two college classes you have to pay.”
That’s also why Misty Price transferred her daughter there.
“I wanted a school that would challenge my daughter, and something that was going to help her in her future to cut down some of her college classes, because she wants to be a vet,” Price said.
Fewer of those costs will be transferred to the school district now, because Pellissippi State has recently agreed to cover more.
“We’re working out offering a scholarship toward students at Career Magnet who commit to completing a certificate or degree, and meet regularly to make sure on track,” Pellissippi’s Wise said.
More college courses could soon also be covered by the state. Gov. Bill Lee has proposed providing up to four dual-enrollment technical college courses per high school student, although those would be in “high-demand” job fields the state identifies. An expansion of technical education and apprenticeships has been one of Lee’s first major initiatives as governor.
“It’s clear that Governor Lee’s really focused on career tech education and creating opportunities both in the high school and for transition to the technical and community colleges,” Wise said. “That would be a tool all schools could use.”
Rysewyk said some of the district’s regular high schools might add more college-credit classes if Lee’s proposal passes.
Improvements and recruitment
Besides reducing costs, other improvements are being made to make CMA more attractive to transfers. The first graduating class provided helpful feedback.
“One of the things they said was: ‘We had a great experience here, but if we had unlimited choices or more choices here, it would have been even better,’” Wise said.
Originally the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce had helped the school district identify jobs local employers need trained workers to fill. Four subject matter pathways were designed around them.
“When we started, the whole goal was workforce development,” recalled CMA teacher Maria Crowe. “The drive was for students to go into the work force with an industry certification or associate’s degree.”
But some pathways, like advanced manufacturing, were hard for eighth graders to understand, Rysewyk said. That pathway also had to be finished at Pellissippi, and CMA realized students and families wanted to keep their options open. The “teaching and learning” pathway drew the most students, partly because more of its courses were transferable to universities.
“We asked (Pellissippi), could we open that up and be a little more early college? Could we have access to whole campus as opposed to just recruiting for these pathways?” Rysewyk said. The college immediately agreed.
Crowe said a dean of students was to CMA added this year to focus more on student support. Both the school district and Pellissippi are providing more individual guidance to help students develop a course of study.
This year the school started requiring a freshman foundational course to help students with study skills, organization and how to take notes; all the teachers now reinforce those principles, Crowe said.
This is needed because unlike many similar magnet, CMA has no entrance exam. Crowe said many students with special needs and learning disabilities choose CMA because it’s smaller than other high schools, providing them more teacher facetime.
“I also have to say (some of) these are students who probably would not have graduated from high school,” Crowe said. “It’s exciting that some are taking college courses who never thought they would be in college. We have a lot of families who don’t have any college graduates.”
Freshman Lindsay French said she thought the low student-teacher ratio at CMA would help her be more successful. “In middle school, I didn’t get the best grades, even though I was in honors, because I couldn’t get one-on-one support from the teacher,” she said.
Because CMA was designed to serve students from parts of Knox County where students might be unlikely to afford more than a couple of college courses, it attracts many economically-disadvantaged students, according to Crowe.
At a time when Knox County Schools are trying to make discipline policies more equitable, CMA is also helping some kids turn their behavior around.
“There are kids that were struggling and labeled ‘problem students’ at other schools, and they don’t have a major behavior problem at (CMA),” Price said. “They’re not lost in the shuffle.”