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Helping students succeed
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Small learning communities aid freshmen
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Written by Lauren Fritz
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Friday, 16 March 2007
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 | | Photo by Sarah Johnson | | PLANNINGITOUT—Wanda Barber, left, George Kiefer, Kathryn Nice, Melissa Wallace and Barbara Lipnick meet every day during fourth block to plan out and discuss the SmallLearning Communities program. The goal of the program is to help lower the freshman failure rate. |
Some students complain about going to the same class for 90 minutes straight, but that is one thing certain kids don’t have to worry about. Students in Small Learning Communities, or SLC, don’t have to worry about long classes because they have two skinnies, which make up their third block.
Their blocks are spilt up because SLC is special program to help incoming freshmen succeed and defy the freshmen failure rate. These students are chosen based on teacher comments, ITBS scores, and DRP scores.
SLC has been at West for the past four years. It’s not as different from regular classes as some may think. It still follows the required curriculum except that it runs all year long and is combined, instead of only one or two terms. It also meets third block, but with a skinny of English and Social Studies, each being 45 minutes long.
Kathryn Nice and Polly Brownson handle English, George Kiefer and Melissa Wallace handle social studies, and Wanda Barber helps with strategy. These are five of the teachers, which help with the two sections of the curriculum that is taught to the select freshmen. Nice and Kiefer both have classes of SLC kids during the first part of third block, and exchange kids during the second part. This is done so that they get equal time in each section of he course in order to get the full effect of this program.
This program was established in order to help freshmen gain more skills and become more organized for the next three years of high school. Since the failure rate of freshmen is higher than previous years, the district felt that a program to better the outcome of our freshman was in order.
"This program has significantly lowered the failure rate in a very good way. It’s not a quick fix to get all of our freshmen to pass," said Jacobsen. "It’s to help those who the district feels could use some extra help find a new way to succeed in ways they never thought possible."
Having the same students for a whole year can be an obstacle because it can set the in a rut which can be hard to change.
"Routine is great, but when you get too comfortable, that is when problems arise," Nice said.
"I’ve really enjoyed being part of SLC the last four years," Nice said. "I especially enjoy being able to come up with new ideas and fresh strategies."
Some of the things that she likes are being able to have the students all year long, which help the teachers to get to know their students better. She also likes being able to focus on special reading strategies and spreading out their work instead of cramming into one term.
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