City schools add new enrichment period

This school year, the Lynchburg City Schools are adding extra time for extra help.

Superintendent Paul McKendrick has directed all elementary, middle and high school principals to divert time to “enrichment periods” during the regular school day this year.

That time might take the form of 20 or 30 minutes per day, or 40 minutes twice per week. Some students get help during the period while other students work on homework or try out activities outside the normal academic routine.

E.C. Glass principal Kevin Latham said he was eager to try adding an enrichment period, after hearing about early signs of success at Heritage High School.

“We started it because we saw the amazing results it is having.” Latham said. “We are not too proud to steal someone else’s idea and modify it, if it is in the best interest of the students.”

He gives the new “Remediation And Mentoring” period major credit for positive changes at the school. Glass’ student failure rate for the first six weeks of school is down about 10 percent from last year. Ninety-nine freshman failed one or more classes, down from 151.

More Info

• Superintendent McKendrick credits Richard DuFour and his wife with helping to inspire the school division to try adding enrichment periods. For a bio of Richard DuFour, see www.solution-tree.com/Public/ProfDev.aspx?ShowBio=true&authorid=1005

Those results mirror similar findings at Heritage and Linkhorne Middle School, both of which began enrichment programs last year.

At Heritage, Principal Mark Miear said he saw 66 percent fewer F’s second semester last year, after the school instituted the enrichment period. Linkhorne Middle School Principal Robert Kerns said that the school’s failure rate in core content classes was nearly cut in half and the percent of kids who failed multiple core classes dropped by almost 66 percent.

Across the school system, schools are taking different approaches to implementing an enrichment period.

Glass’ RAM period somewhat resembles the homeroom class some parents might remember. Students, grouped by grade level, attend RAM class for half an hour between second and third periods. The teenagers participate in roll call and related activities during RAM, but some don’t stay in their RAM classes for long.

Instead, students who need or want help in an academic subject head off to get extra help from that teacher. Those students who remain in their RAM classes generally study or work on assignments, though some RAM

teachers are trying out their own ideas, like teaching kids how to use day-planning software on the computer. The tentative plan is for Glass students to remain with the same RAM teacher throughout their four years as a way of providing continuity.

Each of Glass’s regular class periods has been shortened by about two minutes to help make time for the enrichment period. The rest of the time for RAM comes from a trick also used at Heritage and Linkhorne Middle School: Students at Glass now watch and hear school news and announcements at lunch, rather than during second period.

At Heritage and Linkhorne, enrichment is a longer period that happens twice each week instead of daily and does not take away any previous instructional time.

Students at Linkhorne who don’t need extra help participate in enrichment activities rather than working on homework. Kerns said that students have had a chance to try out everything from podcasting to creating their own comics.

“It’s sort of a middle-school philosophy of exposing kids to a lot of things and letting them figure out what they are good at,” Kerns said, adding that he feels many Linkhorne students need the extra challenge of outside-the-box activities. “SOLs are important, but we aren’t just about SOLs.”

Among the other schools in the district, some just began implementing an enrichment period during the second six weeks of school, while others like R.S. Payne Elementary have had their own enrichment periods for more than half a decade.

Payne principal John Blakely said sometimes it is hard to find funding for some of the fun enrichment activities his school provides.

“The challenges are financial — there are creative ways that teachers make use of what is available,” Blakely said, but added he felt the school had almost no choice but to make time in the school day for remedial help. “It fell out of need and it fell out of necessity.”