Eckerd Youth Alternatives Cite Classworks in Higher Scores |
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Classworks is a great education solution in a traditional school setting, and is proving to be highly effective in alternative school settings as well. At one alternative school site, students posted gains that equated to nearly two full school years over one nine-month period. Eckerd Youth Alternatives, a private, not-for-profit organization founded in 1968, has a series of facilities on the east coast designed to keep at-risk kids out of trouble and getting troubled kids back on track. As part of its learning component, Eckerd has implemented Classworks in its classrooms at 12 sites in four states. One such Eckerd Youth Alternatives site is Camp E-Mun-Talee, an Outdoor Therapeutic Program in Lowgap, North Carolina. In June of 2006, educational gains for the school year were examined and found to be at or near targets. Over the next couple of months, Camp E-Mun-Talee lost three teachers, leaving Celia Davis, the camp’s educational coordinator, and E-Mun-Talee’s students without a full staff of instructors. This created a real concern regarding the needs of these students and meeting their educational targets for the school year. Davis pressed other camp employees – counselors, administrative staff, etc. – into service in the classrooms. One major constant in the classroom was the Classworks instruction. Davis said that with Classworks, those stepping in to the teaching roles were able to keep the campers working on academics without losing valuable instructional time. When the year was over and results were in, Davis was delighted to see that her students’ gains had far exceeded expectations, with 1.7 to 1.8 grade-level equivalent gains in Reading, Written Language and Math. Each tenth of a point equates to one month of expected educational gain, meaning the students made 17 to 18 months of academic progress in one year. |