Allan Appel Photo
It’s not every school where the kids go skiing in May.
That’s exactly what these third graders were doing at the Fair Haven School Saturday morning: skiing along in two teams down the shiny main hall of their school. If the kids in front don’t communicate with those in back so that all lift their feet at once, the team simply can’t proceed, and win.
Such “ECHO” “empathy, character, hope, and opportunity”) exercises were also taking place Saturday in three other K‑8 schools: Clemente, Wexler/Grant ‚and Troup.
They are an integral part of the city’s new “Saturday Academy,” which uses smaller class sizes, cutting-edge technology, and social skill-building exercises to help kids enjoy four hours of extra, more intimate, weekend learning.
The effort started in January following a spate of low test scores. It has become a primary front in the mayor’s initiative to catch struggling kids up in reading and math as early in their primary education as possible.
On Saturday the mayor and school officials, such as Gemma Joseph Lumpkin, the district’s director of youth, family, and community engagement, toured the four schools, to check out the action and review the progress.
The first stop was Grand Avenue where Fair Haven School kids, staffers, and parents all gave the program a big thumbs up.
Principal Heriberto Cordero said at first he thought to have lots of performances for the visiting dignitaries; then thought better of it.
Instead the morning featured the normal Saturday routine of “skiing,” reading, math and reading computer games, with teachers — who regularly see on their own computers what issues kids struggle with, then pull them aside in small groups or alone for individualized learning.
“I think this could be our crown jewel,” said Lumpkin as she watched the kids “ski” and then go to classrooms for reading time with teachers. Each group of 20 kids had two teachers.
They launched into self-directed reading programs like Lexia and Reflex Math, which incorporate gaming into the curriculum.
The thumbs and fingers move quickly, the multiplication and division problems are solved fast, and the kids score points, and advance.
Early Indicators Point To Progress
Noel Conde and Katherine Figueroa play Reflex Math. games.
The Saturday Academy, a pilot project, cost about $500,000 this year. Lumpkin said it is funded by federal Title One dollars as well as money from the district’s operational budget. About 500 kids citywide are involved, although the original planning had been up to 800.
Almost all the kids enrolled, by virtue of being in Title One schools, are in need of extra attention to get them up to grade level.
“Our early data indicators are that students are making substantial growth in reading. Our kids who entered Saturday Academy in January were [on average] two grade levels behind, and now we are seeing students growing closer to their grade level,” she said.
The data, which she emphasized is only preliminary, will be finalized and published before the end of the school year in mid June, Lumpkin added.
Even though it’s a moment of serious budgetary belt-tightening and cutting at the Board of Ed, Lumpkin said, “we’re hopeful to sustain and expand [the program], although everything’s on the table.”
Budgetary issues were not on the minds of fifth-graders Haender Ventura and Katherine Figueroa. Like every kid in the program they both had their own Google Chromebooks, on which they were busy doing quick multiplication and division problems.
Each correct answer in this particular exercise offers a successive piece of a puzzle. You do two static puzzles. Then you get to play a more space-agey game called Quick Slither. In that game, each correct answer adds a segment to your reptilian shape. You must answer with even more rapidity in order to dodge a triangular shaped attacking wedge, so, as you escape, your math fluency grows.
Rebecca and Eddie Cordero with their new friend Katherine Figueroa.
The idea of quick answers to 18 divided by 2 — that is, Reflex Math — is to train the brain in such basic math “fact fluencies” so that the kids can go on, in their regular classes in weekly school, to math “comprehension,” said Principal Cordero.
In Lexia, a reading program also used at New Haven Reads, the kids are addressing more sophisticated comprehension questions in reading.
The Fair Haven edition of the Saturday Academy is staffed by Fair Haven School teachers like Anna McCarthy and those from elsewhere in the district. McCarthy, who teaches kindergarten during the week, works with third graders on Saturday. She arrives early and sees the kids arriving at around 8 to 8:30 a.m. and breakfasting until 9.
From 9 to 9:30 a.m. they “ski” and do other ECHO team-building exercises. Since they come from all over the district, kids like Katherine said, an especially enjoyable aspect is meeting new friends, like Rebecca and Eddie Cordero, who go to the John C. Daniels School during the week.
Teacher McCarthy reads aloud to third graders.
Then, from 9:30 to 11:30, the kids do 45 minutes each of literacy and math work on their computers,or other activities of choice. The computer sessions are often preceded by a mini-lesson from the teachers and, for the lower grades, with reading aloud in groups. There’s also a half hour of choose-your-own gym or more tech or art built.
McCarthy said she has been surprised at how happy the kids are to be there.:“The use of technology keeps the students more engaged. Also there’s a lot more choice and chance for them to get to know each other, They’re always here, they’re always eager.”
This first edition of the Saturday Academy has also been a learning experience for the planners, said Lumpkin.
Public “Private School”
Principal Cordero with parent Alba Marquez and future Sat. Academy student, Giselle.
Principal Cordero said that the technology is terrific and plays a huge role. But he pointed to the class size, 20 kids with two instructors, as the key.
It’s “something unheard of, like private school.”
He said he has high hopes the program will continue. The initial investment in equipment — for his school four portable Chromebook carts with 30 computers each, for 120 total and and one cart of full laptops — has already been made. “That was big,” he said.
All they mainly need now is continued funding for staffing.
“We’re working on that now. It’s certainly a priority of mine,” said long-time Board of Ed member, Michael Nast, who dropped by to check out the learning and the fun.