The Harvard Graduate School of Education’s (HGSE) Education Redesign Lab is pleased to welcome ChattanoogaHamilton County as the newest community in their By All Means consortium. Lesley Scearce, president and CEO of United Way of Greater Chattanooga said, “Being selected to join the By All Means consortium is an honor and recognizes our hard work and commitment through Chattanooga 2.0 to the children of our community. The partnership with Harvard and the Education Redesign Lab is an important opportunity to learn from and with other communities so we can accelerate our work.”
With programs ranging across health, education, housing assistance, and child development, the integrative work of the By All Means consortium aims to ensure that all students thrive.
Paul Reville, founder of the Education Redesign Lab and the former Education Secretary of Massachusetts, echoed the promise of this new partnership, saying “we are thrilled to welcome Chattanooga-Hamilton County to the By All Means consortium. We were impressed by their efforts to support children and families in their community, and look forward to working together and learning from one another. Through innovation, partnership, and community collaboration—we believe we can provide all our children the opportunity to succeed in education and life.”
Jim Coppinger, newly re-elected Hamilton County Mayor welcomed the news, saying “We know that the investments we make in education pay dividends for our county long term, and in particular this is an important opportunity to support students in after-school and summer programs. I’m excited this is a priority for By All Means 2.0, and we see this as a great chance to learn from other communities and accelerate the work we have already been doing.”
“We have been working hard as a school district and community to improve outcomes for all students. One of our action areas within Future Ready 2023 is to engage the community. We know our schools can’t do it alone; it takes supports and services from across the community to connect every student to the help he or she needs to be successful,” shared Dr. Bryan Johnson, the superintendent of Hamilton County Schools.
Chattanooga-Hamilton county joins six other communities across the country—Louisville, Ky.; Oakland, Ca.; Providence, RI; Salem and Somerville, Ma.; and the state-wide Partnership for Resilience work in Illinois—whose mayors, superintendents and civic leaders are leading cities to develop integrated systems of education and child well-being to close achievement and opportunity gaps.