Mitchell Middle School Afterschool Program is open to all students, but is focused on those who need extra help completing and passing their course work. Tutors work with students on a 1:7 ratio whenever they need that extra help. Mitchell Middle School’s philosophy is that every student completes and masters every assignment and assessment. Students needing extra time and assistance are invited to work with tutors on a day by day basis. They provide services to roughly 50% of the 600 students at some point during the school year.

Summer school begins the first day of summer break. Any student who has work to make up is required to attend until all work is completed with mastery.

The programs at Longfellow and LB Williams Elementary are open to all students as well, but similar to the Middle School program, students that need extra help mastering a subject or need to get caught up on work are highly encouraged to attend. The students are selected based on current evaluations, teacher recommendations, data from skill based assessments for reading and mathematics, as well as parent recommendations. Students receive direct instruction on reading and math for one hour. Students are in small groups of 6-8 with a highly qualified teacher working on skills at individual ability levels.

Summer School consists of a 4-week program for students in grades K-4. They work an hour on math and an hour on reading in two different sessions.

Success Stories:
At LB Williams Elementary the students that participate in the tutoring program have gained an average of 26 points in math and 13 points in reading.

At the Middle School when asked for a success story Ms. Way had this to say, “It’s almost like we don’t notice the impacts until we prepare the reports. At which time we realize a student who was a “frequent attendee” early in the year, was almost non-existent later on. This is usually because they have finally learned to be proactive and seek the help they need before they are behind, or have gained the necessary skills and content knowledge to be able to keep up in their classes. MANY parents acknowledge the benefits of our program AFTER their students leave the school, but it often takes a year or two away for them to really “notice” what it did/does for their kids. It’s nice to hear those things when we happen upon these kids/parents away from the school setting.”

Staffing Structure:
At the Middle School, the team who organizes the program works hard to make sure the teachers aren’t overwhelmed with more students than they can handle. They also work to group students in such a way that the teachers aren’t having to spend the time disciplining and can concentrate on tutoring. They also honor requests for age and content level. For example, not everyone is comfortable helping with 8th grade math. At Longfellow Elementary, the teachers appreciate that the lessons are planned out ahead of time. They really enjoy that they can show up and teach the lesson without the extra planning time. At LB Williams, they use a "job share” method. Someone teaches 2 days and the other person teaches the other 2 days. The teachers that help in the afterschool program are also compensated well for their time so that’s another benefit of teaching afterschool.

What's the best time for students to have recess? Before lunch or after? What happens if it rains? If students are misbehaving, is it a good idea to punish them by making them sit out recess?

Those are just a few of the issues addressed in new guidelines designed to help schools have good recess. The recommendations come from a group called SHAPE (Society of Health and Physical Educators) America and from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new guidelines, in two documents, offer educators a list of 19 evidence-based strategies and a planning template to show them what a good recess policy looks like.

Click here to read more.