High School Making the Grads - and the Grades

After years of struggle, low test scores and whispers of state intervention, there is a new ray of hope at Howard High School.

For the first time since No Child Left Behind standards became law, Howard is on the brink of meeting federal AYP benchmarks.

The Hamilton County school is celebrating a milestone that parents, administrators and even students say, is a long time coming.

"I always hope and pray that everything we see and pray about is true," school board member George Ricks says, excitedly. "Sometimes you just feel like you're in a dream and you don't want to wake up cuz it's a nightmare. I feel good about this dream, I really do."

Five years ago, graduation rates at Howard were a nightmare. Just 24 percent of students finished school. This year, preliminary figures show 67.4 percent, or more than two out of every three did. And that put them on track to pass the federal graduation benchmark of 65.5 percent.

"What that means is that we're setting ourselves up to meet Adequate Yearly Progress for next year," Principal Dr. Paul Smith says. "This grad rate from last year carries on for this year and if we maintain our data, maintain where we are in English and keep making our gains in math, we'll have AYP for the first time."

Smith says it starts from the top down: administration is involved, teachers are committed, parents are more engaged than ever and then, there's the students themselves.

"I surround myself by people who have high expectations for themselves," Howard senior Terence Kelley says. 

Kelley says the hallways of Howard are different than when he was a freshman, and so are the attitudes. 

"You're happy to wake up in the morning and come to school because you know you have someone who actually cares about you," Kelley says. "When you hear positive things about your school, it gives you positive thoughts and that gives you a sense of hope and makes you believe that you can do the same thing and accomplish those goals."

The state is expected to release the formal data sometime soon.