As we anticipate our Summer Training Institute in Carlsbad, CA in a couple weeks, we want to welcome Chattanooga Preparatory to our Model School family!  We actually met key people in the Chattanooga Prep Model School program at our Summer Institute four years ago.  To learn more about our Summer Institute this year (June 22-23, at Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad, CA), please check out this website:  https://gurianinstitute.com/events/gurian-summer-institute-2019/.

We are delighted to let you know about Chattanooga Prep, an all-boys public charter school that opened its doors to sixty 6th grade students in August 2018.  It is located in the Highland Park area close to downtown Chattanooga.  As Principal Brad Scott told Michael Gurian recently, “Our school is positioned to provide a unique and impactful educational opportunity for the young men in our urban communities.”

The Co-Founder of the school, Ted Alling, told Michael, “Chattanooga Preparatory is one of America’s leading edge schools for boys, and with staff innovation and exciting training from both the Gurian Institute and the National Center for the Development of Boys, the school has already shown both qualitative and quantitative success. With boys struggling so much in our American schools, Chattanooga Prep is serving not only the boys in its classrooms but the neighborhood and city. I believe this school will become a model for others across the country and thank both the National Center and the Gurian Institute for providing us with their research and strategies-based tools for success.”

A word from Michael Gurian about Chattanooga Prep

In March, 2019, I visited Chattanooga Prep, accompanied by Troy Kemp, Executive Director of the National Center for the Development of Boys. We observed classrooms, met administrators and teachers, and spent time with the students–the young men–themselves. My work as an educational consultant and thought leader has taken me to more than a thousand schools in thirty years. My visit to Chatt Prep was one of my most satisfying.

Open just one year, the school has already reached high standards of quantitative and qualitative achievement. New assessments of student performance in math, for instance, compared to before-attendance, show a 600% increase in ‘mastery’ a year later, and doubled achievement in ‘on track.’ Similarly, literacy scores have shown a 300% improvement. These are significant quantitative gains by any standard.

At Chattanooga Prep, student and staff satisfaction is high, providing a powerful qualitative measurement of success. Teachers are moving around the classroom; staff make themselves available and hold students to high standards; and male learning styles are understood and accommodated.

The boys themselves are challenged, confident, clear in expectations of them, empathic of others, and inculcate lessons and behavior standards well suited to both individual needs and a collective culture. As one student put it during our visit, “I finally belong somewhere–here–and it is a really good feeling.”

The Gurian Institute has designated Chattanooga Prep as a Gurian Institute Model School in 2019.  We are joined in that enthusiasm by the National Center for the Development of Boys, which is also designating the school its first National Center for the Development of Boys Model School at the same time.  Both of our organizations are committed to supporting the school as it continues its journey of expansion into new grades and levels.

–Michael Gurian, Executive Director, The Gurian Institute

We hope you’ll visit the Chattanooga Preparatory website and learn more about the great work it is doing for kids:  https://chattanoogaprep.com/.