VIRGINIA BEACH
At Brandon Middle School, students know what happens if they don't study or do their homework: They get pulled out of their favorite elective to catch up.
"The kids work harder during the marking periods," said school guidance director Joyce Kielbasa. "They know if they don't pass a class they have to do it again."
It's been an effective technique at Brandon, and last year, the extra academic support class was expanded to 12 of the city's middle schools.
The initial results are in. After the first year, the number of middle school student s retaking classes over the summer dropped 40 percent to 673 students while the number of students taking free remedial classes to prepare them for the next grade increased.
The added support didn't appear to affect the already-low percentage of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders who were held back, which was approximately 1 percent in both 2008 and 2009, according to the division's accountability department.
The change also had little effect on the bottom line, one of the initial expected benefits. The entire summer school program serving elementary, middle and high school students cost $3.5 million to run in 2009, similar to the cost in 2008. In both years, about $1.6 million of that was not reimbursed by the state.
However, the financial picture was affected, in part, by a School Board decision in May 2008 to roll back some summer school tuition increases that would have paid for more academic support in high schools and further reduced costs.
Julie Young, who teaches sixth-grade math at Brandon, meets with a small group of students who failed her classes while their peers take electives like art, music or foreign languages.
"It's a really good time for us to sit with a smaller group and work with them," Young said.
She and her fellow teachers treat the time like an additional class instead of make-up time. They hold discussions on real-life uses for concepts like fractions (in recipes, for example), do hands-on activities and work on classroom computers. It's been very effective, she said.
"They walk out and say 'I get it now, Ms. Young!' That's a good feeling for me and them, too."
Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com
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Smaller classes
Perhaps these kids are doing better because they are in a setting with a smaller student/teacher ratio and better able to understand. The comment, "now I get it" says it all.
other schools
I am pretty sure that this has been going on at middle schools other than Brandon prior to just last year. I know we tell our 5th graders that if they don't pass they lose their electives becasue of the middle school we feed into and have been doing it for the last 3 years. It is a great motivator for students--- even in 5th grade! If only there were more concrete consequences along the way!
Kudos
I applaud this action.
It scares me more and more
It scares me more and more when I speak to teachers and they tell me their students are actually writing like, "Ur mother is teh best girl on dis planet." This is not ok and it will never be ok. I know that language changes but this is our kids becoming dumber and dumber.
Electives do need to go unfortunately for those who are failing because they are obviously going to be missing the skills and education to help them through life. It annoys me so much!
Great idea!
It's about time that students learn that in order to get what they want, (electives) they must first do what is necessary! Math and English must take precedence over BBall, basketweaving, etc.