Taking a Closer Look at the Saturday Academy
The Saturday Academy in the Huntington School District enrolled 74 K-2 students in 2010/11 and 65 in 2011/12, according to a report compiled by Carmen Kasper, district director of foreign language, ESL and bilingual programs.
"This program is offered on Saturdays for 2 ½ hours to kindergarten, first and second grade English language learners," Ms. Kasper said. "The classes ran for 18 weeks each time. Students are selected based on their AIMSweb scores."
"AIMSweb is a web-based assessment, data management, and reporting system that provides the framework for Response to Intervention (RTI) and multi-tiered instruction," according to the website of Pearson, the company that offers the product. "Designed specifically to universally screen and monitor progress, AIMSweb uses brief, valid, and reliable general outcome measures of reading and math performance for grades K-8 that can be used with any curriculum."
This past year, 31 kindergarteners, 23 first graders and 11 second graders participated in the Saturday Academy. "The program's focus is literacy and the lessons are prepared following the Treasure Chest curricular agenda," Ms. Kasper said. The recent report on the program was shared with members of the Huntington School Board.
The multi-faceted Saturday Academy initiative includes a home connection component. "The program also offers workshops to parents to inform them of the curriculum goals and to explain the importance of reading at home," Ms. Kasper said. "During these workshops, the teachers model how to work with their children at home and simple materials are distributed."