Changes ahead for students
Changes ahead for students
By Jerry W. Kram
School starts Thursday at New Town Public Schools. After reviewing an experimental school calendar used last year, the school plans changes to help boost student performance in the 2013-14 school year.
Last year, New Town High School and Middle School experimented with holding longer classes and on Fridays holding intervention classes for students who needed extra help to catch up with their peers and enrichment classes for the other students so they could take advanced classes in math, technology, art, drama, and government that they might not normally have an opportunity to study. Superintendent Marc Bluestone said the experiment did produce some positive results, but the school was going back to a five day calendar for the coming school year.
“After looking at the data, we are implementing a program called the power of ICU (Intensive Care Unit),” Bluestone said. “It will be kind of based on what we did last year, but it will be a more formal process.”
Bluestone said last year’s intervention classes did produce significant improvements for the students who participated. However, many students looked at the Friday sessions as nonessential and skipped school for a long weekend. Bluestone added that some parents were also not convinced of the need for the Friday classes.
