“The Tutoring Center Where: 128 S. Randa (Business Journal of McHenry County)” plus 2 more |
- The Tutoring Center Where: 128 S. Randa (Business Journal of McHenry County)
- Schools offer tutoring remediation to improve graduate numbers in county (Greenville Advocate)
- Catholic Charities appeal raises $1.8M in Missouri (Columbia Missourian)
| The Tutoring Center Where: 128 S. Randa (Business Journal of McHenry County) Posted: 23 Feb 2010 11:24 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. By LEE ANN GILL - editorial@nwherald.com ALGONQUIN – When Jas Kahlon's youngest son needed extra help in school, he was too shy to ask for it in front of the other children. That inspired the Woodstock resident to open The Tutoring Center to provide one-on-one help for students. "My little one set off the light bulb over my head," said Kahlon, owner of The Tutoring Center. "There are kids who need the one on one but are too afraid to ask for help." Most in-school tutoring is done in large groups, she said, adding there could be 15 students to one teacher. With two teachers from Crystal Lake High School District 155 and two additional teachers with a solid math background providing the tutoring, the center offers assistance for kindergarten through 12th grade students from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. A separate kindergarten readiness program also is offered for 4- and 5-year-olds. Clients pay each month, with two weekly one-hour sessions each month costing $298. Students can sign up for more than two sessions a week, she said. "We guarantee in 40 sessions your child will raise one grade level [in a subject],'' Kahlon said. Before starting, children are tested in math and reading to determine their ability level, she said, with Fridays kept open for testing. SDLqAll of the children get tested before we choose a program for them," she said. The center also offers a kindergarten readiness program from 2:30 to 3:15 p.m., with parents signing up each month for twice weekly sessions. Tuition for that program is $199 a month. "It might be a different option to sending your kids to pre-K classes," Kahlon said. The program focuses on preparing students academically and socially for kindergarten. "There are rules [during the sessions] that every student needs to follow," she said. "One rule is they come in quietly and they sit quietly." Children in the readiness program are awarded stickers that are traded in for toys, she said. "There's an incentive for good behavior," Kahlon said. The center will be the first Tutoring Center franchise in McHenry County, she said, with other centers located nationwide. The Tutoring Center originally opened for students with attention deficit disorder, Kahlon said, with a Montessori-like approach to learning. An open house is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the center. Comments Add CommentsThere are 35 hours, 47 minutes remaining to comment on this story. Click here to read the rules for posting commentsFive Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Schools offer tutoring remediation to improve graduate numbers in county (Greenville Advocate) Posted: 23 Feb 2010 11:48 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Published Tuesday, February 23, 2010 Some area seniors will need to be hitting the books a little harder if they want to get a diploma in May. Joseph Dean, interim superintendent of Butler County Schools, gave his report on the status of seniors in the county's three public high schools at last Thursday's BOE meeting. The statistics are as follows: *Greenville High School - total number of seniors - 162; total meeting requirements to receive exit document - 89; total not currently meeting requirements for exit document - 73; total who have passed all parts of the grad exam - 100 and total who have passed three parts of the grad exam - 28, with 13 AOD students. *McKenzie High School - total number of seniors - 34; total meeting requirements to receive exit document - 30; total not currently meeting requirements for exit document - 4; total who have passed all part of grad exam - 28; total who have passed three parts of the grad exam - 1 and 1 AOD student. *Butler County Magnet School: total number of seniors - 44; total meeting requirements to receive exit document - 39; total not currently meeting requirements for exit document - 5; total who have passed all parts of grad exam - 30; total who have passed three parts of the grad exam - 6, and a total of 4 AOD students. County-wide totals are 240 seniors, with 158 meeting requirements to receive exit document; 82 not meeting those requirements, 158 who have passed all parts of the grad exam and 35 who have passed at least three parts of the grad exam, and a total of 18 AOD students. Each of the high school principals was asked to come forward and share what their schools were doing to rectify the situation. Dr. Charles Farmer, principal of Greenville High, said having students participate in credit recovery classes was the first step. "We do a lot to help better prepare our students. Extensive tutoring has been going on for four days a week since February 1," Farmer said. "We are not only offering plenty of opportunities to our seniors for remediation, but across the board." Randy Williams, principal of McKenzie High, said two periods a day provided math and reading remediation for students in need of assistance at his school. "We also have a committee analyzing data to help us determine where we need to focus our intervention. We don't have that many students (needing remediation), but we'd like to get them all," Williams said. Jennifer Burt, interim principal at Butler County Magnet School, said classes within the normal school schedule were being offered "every single day" in remediation for all junior and senior classes at BCMS. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE THIS STORY?   Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Catholic Charities appeal raises $1.8M in Missouri (Columbia Missourian) Posted: 24 Feb 2010 10:22 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. ST. LOUIS — The largest private provider of social services in Missouri has surpassed a $1.8 million fundraising goal. Catholic Charities said its 2009 Christmas Appeal supports such programs as homelessness prevention, substance abuse rehabilitation, tutoring and elderly housing. Catholic Charities is part of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. It's made up of eight agencies that help more than 120,000 people each year.
Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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Comments
Posted by CFarmer (anonymous) on February 23, 2010 at 5:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
As principal of GHS, I read the online version of the Greenville Advocate frequently. I have a lot of respect for those who work at the paper. I do read the dialogue on this forum from time-to-time as well. Nonetheless, I wanted to expound on the data presented at the Board meeting the other night. As you can tell, GHS has 162 seniors this year. While there are 89 kids with work left to do, that is a misleading number. Most who know about public education realize that the toughest part of graduating is passing the required parts of the grad exam. At this time we have 23 students with work left to do in that department. To me, that is exceptional. The larger number of 89 students includes those students who may have failed a class the first semester. Board policy allows for the averaging of semester grades if it affords a student the opportunity to pass. Therefore, if a senior failed with a 58 during the 1st semester and they make at least a 62 during the 2nd semester, the student will pass the course. Moreover, we enroll all seniors who failed a class first semester in a credit recovery program to ensure they get the credit (regardless of their second semester average). These are just the basic level interventions we have provided for seniors at GHS. I can assure you there are many, many other interventions that we are incorporating on a daily basis. So not to bore you, I will stop here, but might expound on them later.
Posted by CFarmer (anonymous) on February 23, 2010 at 10:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I really think the most important intervention we have developed over the last year and a half is our GHS Reading Initiative. It would take too long to discuss the entire reading initiative on this forum. However, basically all teachers are held accountable for implementing monthly reading strategies that are taught to us by our reading coach, Paige Barr. We have an online implementation dialogue as a faculty to discuss ways to better serve our students in reading because, to me, kids have to be good readers to be successful in all areas of life. A link to our online dialogue is available on our school website. I must say that we are even having a delegation from Auburn University, AUM, ARI, and Chambers County Schools to visit on March 11th to survey our reading initiative.
Other Interventions:
1. Remediation courses in all core areas
2. After-school tutoring for all kids in the core areas. We even offer a bus to get kids home. We also give away daily prizes with a drawing for all who attend.
3. We have hired a temporary Reading Intervention Specialist, who is a certified English teacher, to help us prepare for the grad exam.
4. Our English Department (all grades except for 12th grade) has taken it upon themselves to focus lessons over the last 7 weeks on the Reading objectives that will be tested on the grad exam. There is a pre and post-test given to evaluate student progress towards mastering these objectives and deciding what might need to be re-taught.
5. Our Math Department (all teachers) covers Math objectives for the grad exam with a daily bellringer. At the end of the week, a short assessment is administered to evaluate student understanding.
6. Our Reading Coach pulls students out of elective classes in the afternoon to help give them more opportunities to work on reading skills.
7. We have 9 reading classes that include students from all grades. These classes are yearlong and help build foundational reading skills. As a side note, we were recently awarded a $160,000 grant from the State Department of Education to assist with our Reading Initiative and classes. The grant will afford us the opportunity to expand our reading focus with the use of technology.
I'm sure I've forgotten something, but I think this gives a true picture of what our faculty is doing to try and prepare kids for success inside and outside the classroom.
Posted by gvillegirl (anonymous) on February 23, 2010 at 10:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank you, Dr. Farmer for clearing up the misleading information presented at Thursday night's board meeting. There is so much more that is required for graduating high school than the public realizes. One of the toughest components is the graduation exam, and the data is looking favorable for the GHS seniors. What others don't realize is the fact that there are students who have come short of earning credit hours due to failures, attendance issues, etc. What the public doesn't know is the number of opportunities available for students to earn these missed credits. A large number of these students are successfully completing these credit recovery programs, and the number of students eligible to graduate is increasing. The numbers posted at Thursday night's board meeting were discouraging. There is still work to do, and it is being done diligently. There are many great things going on at GHS, but I don't think the school board really "gets it." I think the way the principals were approached in a public forum was unprofessional and should have been done behind closed doors so each principal could debrief the board members and clear up any misconceptions BEFORE addressing it to the public. As a parent and supporter of the school system, I was very offended by the way it was presented to the public, and I appreciate the efforts of reporter, Angela Long and the staff at the Greenville Advocate for helping clear up misleading information.
Posted by INI (Rob Mello) on February 24, 2010 at 12:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I certainly appreciate the principal of GHS publicly speaking in this forum. It shows initiative in times where it simply doesn't exist.
That said, I've a simple suggestion on behalf of some who can't/won't speak because they might get fired to teh parents of the children in teh schools.
HELP!
Help the child learn, help by taking five frickin minutes out of each day to speak with the teacher. Find out where the child needs improvement. If you can't help with that area (I personally suck at math, but can pass fourth grade :D ) ask the teacher what you can do. Help them in the classroom. Swing by on your day off to see your baby in the class. They WILL brighten up saying "that's MY Daddy..." etc.
In short get involved. It is NOT up to the schools or the teachers to be the sole educators in your child's life. It is your reponsibility and DUTY to ensure that is achieved.
When confronted with the question of "Do you love you child, and would you do anything for them?" 9 out of 10 parents will say of course.
Good then, take those precious five minutes.
Posted by GHSParent (anonymous) on February 24, 2010 at 8:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
BF2C1, your comments don't do very much but show your ignorance. I am not exactly sure what time was "when you were in school", but I will try to shine a light on some of the differences.
When you were in school, kids who didn't want to be there could drop out and get a good job. If a kid wanted to leave school now without a diploma or GED, do you think there is a job waiting for them?
When you were in school, kids with learning disabilities or who were retarded did not get an education. Now, all kids are tested and measured as if they were the same. How easy does that make it on the teachers and principals?
When you were in school, the local school board set the curriculum and chose the textbooks. The school system today has to meet Federal and State laws that are changing, unclear, and too often unfunded.
I understand that learning to read from your McGuffey reader worked for you, but these kids have to do more than churn butter and tend cows to make a living these days.
Posted by tigerfann (anonymous) on February 24, 2010 at 9:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
BF2C1- you seem to have such a firm grasp on all things topical, why don't YOU run for the BOE?
What you don't seem to understand is that MANY of our children are reading in Kindergarten now! Most children who continue to have problems have learning disabilities, or have poor parental support, and just don't care. We here in Butler County don't have to go outside the country to find qualified teachers, we have them right here. Granted my children have had some stinkers along the way, (very few) but way back when I was in school, I had some stinkers too! Is it acceptable, no, are we trying to fix that problem? yes. My kids are getting an education that I would put up against any in this state. I mean that. Do we have some of the same problems that are happening in society all over the country? You bet. The schools are doing their jobs, above and BEYOND, it is time for the community to do theirs. GET INVOLVED. Every meeting I attend regarding the schools, the same people are there every time. The same people support the athletics, the same people support the PTA/PTO. If you want to gripe, go ahead, but share with us what you have also done to make things better. So my point BF2C1 is this, instead of complaining and criticizing, get off of your computer and do something!!
One more thing, GHS is better than it has been in a long time. Dr. Farmer and his entire staff have brought that school back to the glory days of old, (as much is allowed). To borrow a phrase from our football coach, BACK AND BETTER. To the BOE, recognize the tremendous strides this school has made in the last few years, instead of belittling them in public. We have AWESOME leaders in all of our schools, and the BOE needs to recognize that and look within itself for faults. I highly recommend a full length mirror.
Posted by INI (Rob Mello) on February 24, 2010 at 11:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Lots of good comments here guys. I think the consensus is that kids are being socially promoted. There is a VERY specific reason for this. That is if X amount of children fail a given grade that school is deemed at risk. IE a failure at teaching. This removes the teacher's jobs, administration jobs, etc etc all the way down the line. The sin here is that instead of keeping a couple kids back in the earlier grades, it's swept under the rug and the buck is passed on. Teachers can't call the parents in and tell them their child is failing because of the parents, they'd get fired! Nor can the administrators or Principals or BOE. If I ran for the BOE I would do just that because the pay isn't all that great in the first place, and what truly do I have to lose?
If a child in my district is failing I want to know why and I would definitely visit the family's home to square it away. Get to understand the issues involved in the hows and whys, and strive together with the family to get the child back on track. If the parents are being willfully neglectful then charges need to be brought before a court, and the law takes it from there. I believe it's high time to stand with the kids, not against them.
Also the commenter that said it's the same people at the PTA meetings, as at the practices, etc etc. You are EXACTLY correct, and I've seen this too.
But the underlying truth of it all is that education of the Butler County youth is truly a village type issue because it's a challenge we all face. The child you decide to turn onto Dr. Seuss or A wrinkle in Time, might save your life later on as your Oncologist, or might rob you are knife point. The butterfly effect is just such a principle.
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