SchoolsRetooled TM

Middle School Remedial – Part 1: Mission

February 15, 2011 at 2:14 PM 1 comment

Many students who ultimately will drop out of high school demonstrate a similar pattern of absenteeism and academic failure by grade six. This program builds a cohort of seventh and eighth grade students who are overage, provides remedial education, and fosters new learning habits before they enter high school

Mission:           

• To engage students who are overage in grade and/or underperforming due to significant absenteeism by grade six and prepare them for academic success in high school.
• To diagnose knowledge gaps that may be contributing to academic performance and support remedial learning.
• To provide accelerated access to age appropriate content through intensive content focus, learning across the curriculum, and social learning opportunities.

 Beliefs:

• Students who have experienced academic failure and/or absenteeism are likely to continue to struggle unless this pattern is altered early in adolescence.
• Access to academic success is the most effective path to behavioral change.
• Adolescents grow intellectually as a result of group processes with their peers, families, and communities that is either social or academic in focus.
• At risk students may benefit from more comprehensive chunking of academic content (as opposed to spiraling) and recover credit at a somewhat accelerated pace.
• High school readiness is measured in academic, developmental, and social/emotional benchmarks.
• Informed decision making depends on concrete evidence, analysis of facts and risk factors, and either democratic or independent choice.

Entry filed under: Drop-out Prevention, Middle School Alternatives. Tags: drop-out prevention, education, middle school remediation.