GILROY
– For 500 elementary and middle school students, the school day
ends at 5:30 p.m.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – For 500 elementary and middle school students, the school day ends at 5:30 p.m.
The students are enrolled in a new after-school program being launched at five Gilroy schools this year. Thanks to a federal grant, the schools will provide a structured, uniform after-school program targeting the district’s lowest-performing students.
The California 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, federally funded and administered by the state department of education, gives school districts money for multifaceted after-school programs. It provides for academic enrichment and support services to help students, particularly low-performers, meet state standards in the core areas of language arts and math.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for each of the schools to extend learning for the kids who need the most help and provide additional learning opportunities for kids who are at grade level,” Superintendent Edwin Diaz said.
Students who perform below grade level will benefit most from tutoring and homework assistance offered in the program, while all students will benefit from an extended learning day and enrichment activities, Diaz said.
This is the first time Gilroy Unified School District has offered such an extensive after-school intervention program.
“It’s completely new,” said Olivia Schaad, GUSD director of curriculum and instruction. “We didn’t have consistent after-school programming for kids, and we were having a hard time providing tutoring for them from the teachers who are teaching them all day. We wanted a consistent program that would give the same thing at every campus.”
Some school sites have offered after-school day-care programs or tutoring from individual teachers, Schaad said. The five-year 21st Century grant, which provides GUSD with $600,000 this year, will be used at five school sites this year and more schools may be added next year.
The grant requires the program have a similar setup at each of the five schools, which include Eliot, El Roble, Glen View and Las Animas elementary schools and South Valley Middle School. The GUSD after-school program has started at four of the schools. South Valley’s program will begin Oct. 6.
The program focuses on three areas, and time will be divided equally between each of them: instruction, enrichment and recreation. The instruction portion is a homework center where students receive help from tutors, either teachers or paraprofessionals employed by the district or tutors from the Community Alliance for Upgrading Student Access and Achievement (CAUSA). If students do not have homework to finish, they will be provided with work appropriate to their level.
“It’s a good way to help kids who can’t get help at home with homework,” Eliot Principal Diane Elia said. “We’ll be reinforcing reading and math skills with different activities than what they get during school.”
The enrichment portion of the program includes arts and crafts, music and poetry.
YMCA employees will run the recreation time, teaching students to play sports like soccer or engage in games that develop listening and cooperation skills. The children also receive a snack at the start of the afternoon.
Extending the school day to provide personalized assistance could help GUSD meet its goals of having 90 percent of students at grade level by the end of this school year.
“One of the key strategies to accelerate learning is to provide after-school intervention programs,” Diaz said. “Research is clear that children who are below level need more time, and they need more time in an intensive intervention program.”
The 80 students participating at each site are chosen based on need. Students who underperform on standardized tests were prioritized first, followed by students whose parents speak little or no English and cannot get homework help at home.
“An example of the neediest kid is a fifth-grader who’s just acquiring English,” Elia said “because there’s somebody who’s going to be immersed in sixth grade next year, they really have a higher need to me.”
Some parents were notified during the summer their child could participate in the program while others were notified shortly after the start of school.
The after-school program at Glen View is more intensely geared toward academic intervention. The school, which until this week was identified by the state as in need of Program Improvement due to low scores on standardized tests, has a fourth component which the others do not: Extreme Learning. There are a total 183 students in the after-school program at Glen View.
As a Program Improvement school, Glen View was required to offer intervention programs to low-performing students. Money from Title I funding was allocated in the 2003-04 budget for a year-long contract with Extreme Learning, a service that provides the school with tutors and computer programs that teach to individual students’ needs.
“Whatever that child’s need is, they identify and target that part concept or skill,” Principal Marilyn Ayala said.
District officials and school staff are confident the after-school program will increase students’ learning by keeping them engaged in activities that are both educational and enjoyable.
“It’s going to be great, the kids are enjoying it,” said Esmeralda Luna, a teacher at Glen View and one of the two program coordinators.
During Extreme Learning’s summer school program at Glen View, Luna saw students improve academically while having fun. She expects the same will happen in the after-school program.
“At the end of the day, the kids didn’t want to leave,” Luna said.
