Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
After just over a year of operation, Foster School’s after-school and homework assistance programs have produced positive results in students’ attendance and behavior, the programs’ director says.
“Attendance has gone up, referrals (for poor behavior) are down,” said Rich Little, who has headed the program since it began in April 2006.
He said 70 percent of Foster’s approximately 260 students have participated in at least one after-school session and 30 percent of the children have participated in every session.
“That’s just amazing,” Little said. “It’s way beyond what we’d anticipated.”
The purpose of the program is to give students “hands-on enrichment” that will help them recognize the connection between what they learn in school and what happens in the outside world, he said. The goal is to improve class attendance, attentiveness and behavior in class, attitude and motivation in learning, peer relationships and academic performance.
“The thing about the after-school program was that we wanted to provide a broad experience,” Little said. “Lots and lots of research shows that learning is built on prior knowledge. What we see our responsibilities are is providing hands-on experiences, to broaden (students’) experiences. We’re doing all kinds of things, most of it hands-on. ”
He said that when students studied local waterways last year, some had never been to the river. Some had never been across Foster Dam until the class visited the South Santiam Fish Hatchery.
The program is intended to help students with basic knowledge and skills in a broad range of areas.
It is funded by a five-year 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant of just under $1 million, awarded to organizations on the basis of need, from the federal government as part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Foster’s was submitted by the school Site Council and includes a before-school morning program called Homework Club, the afternoon program, and evening programs for families.
Little, who attended Foster himself and whose parents both taught there, said the grants are awarded to schools in communities with economic and educational needs.
This year the students studied volcanoes (they made a volcano), the life cycle of insects (they raised butterflies from caterpillars), communities (they created a three-dimensional model of the community of Foster), Egyptian history, river ecosystems (they visited the South Santiam Fish Hatchery, Foster Dam and saw the hydroelectric facilities at the dam), the Lewis and Clark expedition, family trees and winter holidays around the world. Nearly every activity requires writing of some type, and all students who participate are required to keep a journal in which they chronicle their activities.
“We have 20 to 30 kids in a group, and four groups, all going in different areas – science, social studies, eating dinner and getting homework assistance, and P.E. Every moment you walk in there, you’ll see different groups doing different things.”
In a unit on chemistry they baked bread and made ice cream, learned about nutrition, and studied the history of grains in a very “hands-on” approach, Little said.
“One of the kids was so cute,” he said. “We baked bread and made butter. The next morning I walked in, and here was the student outside the classroom. I saw her sniffing a plastic bag, so I ran over, and asked ‘What are you doing?’ She said, “Oh, Mr. Little, I just love the smell of fresh-baked bread.’ She had brought her bread back from home.”
“I think that the after-school program provides a lot of consistency for kids, a lot of opportunities,” said Foster Principal Glenna DeSouza. “They have been able to explore things that weren’t there before.”
The program isn’t limited to younger students. Evening sessions were offered in which parents, guardians, or other family members were invited to come with students to learn watercolor painting, ceramics, bird house building, scrapbooking, the Incredible Years curriculum taught by Linn-Benton Community College staff members, and participation in community service projects. He said many students have been introduced to the concept of volunteering through participating in the program.
Little said the adult participation classes have become very popular, to the point that not everyone who wanted to join could get in.
Topics for the upcoming year include building picture frames, making musical instruments, and a six-unit lesson offered by the Oregon State University Extension covering the cooking process, in which students will do everything from making cutting boards to cooking.
He said one purpose of including adults is to increase their awareness of the importance of education and help them to appreciate literacy. The sessions emphasized team-building and communication skills.
Little said one thing he has realized is that it is important to have interaction between older and younger students.
Sessions are run by at least two credentialed teachers, some from other schools, with help from 10 teacher assistants and other volunteers.
“One of the exciting parts of this program is we have sixth-grade teachers working with first-graders,” he said. “Cross-age means an increased sense of community. Kindergarteners know sixth-graders. Students don’t have to be low-income, highly gifted, or be in special ed. It’s open to any student in Foster Elementary School.
“We have high school students coming in to serve as mentors. All of them are helping kids bridge between classroom and real world. Kids are starting to get excited because things are starting to make sense. Everyone, gifted or the opposite, is benefiting because we’re not teaching to one group.
“We’ve learned from prior experiences, and I’ve trained staff to go around, talk to kids, prompt them. Seeds are planted for what they might be able to write about in their journal.”
DeSouza said that test scores in writing have gone up and that attendance has improved from 92 to 94 percent, but results from the TESA achievement tests, which students took the old-fashioned way, with pencil and paper, last spring, won’t be available until later in the year, probably in the fall.
Connie May, who runs the Title 1 program for students at Foster, called the program “wonderful.”
“In a lot of families, the kids go home to nothing,” she said. “There’s a lack of parental support.”
May said that students are appreciative of what the after-school program and Homework Club offer.
“They take advantage of things they can do,” she said. “This is not just a babysitting program. These kids are really learning.”
May said some children who are entering kindergarten at Foster don’t know their shapes, while other students have good basic skills.
“(The program) will definitely be a way to help equalize that,” she said. “I think the results will definitely show up in the (TESA) tests.”
Little said a key element to the program’s success has been parent and community support.
“They’re a wonderful group of kids,” Little said. “The way school staff, parents, and the community have joined together to make this program is just awesome. It’s a credit to our community. They’re always there, always eager to participate. It’s not about the dollar. It’s for the experience.”