300 Jump Start students beat heat in cool schools

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

The program, in its third year, gives extra academic attention to the students who need extra help in reading or mathematics.

‘‘It’s going along great, we’re just chugging along,” Betsy Gay, the lead teacher of the Lexington Park Elementary program, said on Tuesday. ‘‘We’re trying to help them focus and get prepared for the new school year and help them get ready for the next grade level.”

The program welcomes the students for four weeks prior to the rest of the students arriving. Selected students from George Washington Carver, Lexington Park and Green Holly Elementary School are participating in the program this year. The program tries to engage the students and make them look forward to going to school. To get that point across, the program boasts a 10-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio. A nurse, guidance counselor and secretaries are working at each school site, too.

‘‘The students want to be here,” Sharon Thorstensen, instructional resource teacher at the Green Holly program, said. ‘‘The kids are eager to come. That’s the biggest selling point to me. If you can get them excited to be here, you’re doing things right.”

According to Carol Poe, supervisor in the department of academic support for St. Mary’s schools, the bulk of the students’ time is spent with literacy programs, reading and skill-appropriate mathematics. Most of the students who were chosen for the program did not make sufficient progress on the standardized Maryland School Assessment test in those areas.

But the classes aren’t just about reading and writing.

Gay said this year there will also be a focus on science as it relates to physics and motion.

‘‘We’re writing with everything we do,” Thorstensen said. ‘‘You can never write enough. Seeing, listening speaking and writing is going on across the board” in every subject area.

Additionally, the program offers activities to promote attendance and good behavior. Gay said that the results carry over into the regular school year.

‘‘We are seeing positive improvements in attendance and the students really come in with a positive outlook for the school year,” she said. ‘‘Their self-esteem is greatly improved. They really want to come to school to learn.”

In the long term, Gay said that the students are making strides with math and literacy by staying up with and sometimes exceeding their grade level placement.

The voluntary program consists of four weeks of instruction or 20 days of classes for the students. The students then have off for one week prior to the start of the regular school year. Each school’s administrators helped choose the students that they wanted to attend the program.

And the recent stretch of hot weather has made the kids even more eager to get to school.

‘‘The heat helps,” Thorstensen said, ‘‘Not only are we doing cool stuff, we have a cool building. That helps getting them here.”

E-mail Mark Abromaitis at mabromaitis@somdnews.com.