Investing in Our Children (Freshman Academy)

A new program in the South Bend high schools this year seems very promising.

You know how when you go to high school suddenly you have a different teacher for every subject and parents really have no central person to go to for information about how their student is doing? Well, thanks to a 3 million dollar grant that our South Bend Schools have gotten, high school freshmen will be provided with a more supportive learning environment… It’s called a Smaller Learning Communities Grant.

Each high school now has Freshman Academy that helps new students get connected to their high school and feel a sense of belonging. At each school, teachers of freshmen are organized into four teams, and these teams all teach the same group of students. For example, if you are in Mr. Brown’s English class then you are also in Ms. Green’s Algebra class and Mr. Moreno’s Biology class. This team of teachers meets to talk regularly, so that they know what is going on with students in different classes. This Small Learning Community is like having a smaller high school within the larger school.

The students also get special advising with one of their team’s teachers. Students meet with their own advisory teacher twice a week for 30 minutes to review how things are going… And this teacher knows about what is happening in the student’s other classes. This is a pretty powerful dynamic to create. Instead of being able to melt into the crowd of high school, these students have a set of teachers who are getting to know them very well. This is crucial during freshman year, when research shows that the first four to six weeks are crucial for students to feel connected and invested in the school. And these advisory teachers will be reaching out to parents through phone and email.

This is a great plan because adolescents really NEED their teachers to help them resist peer pressure, and motivate them to pursue their dreams. They need closer connections with teachers, and high school doesn’t always provide them. Teachers who have been teaching for years say that this program is really allowing them to get to know their students—one veteran teacher was amazed at the good relationships already forming with students in this program! No kid is anonymous… they know they are being discussed by their team of teachers. The teachers are even coordinating assignments and tests so that students don’t have too heavy workloads on certain weeks. Wish my teachers had done that!

These Freshman Academy have one major goal: Making sophomores. And that’s the first step toward making graduates. Seems pretty promising… and I hear that another small learning community called Career Academy will be developed as the students progress, so students continue to be nestled in small, well connected groups pursuing shared career goals. But that will be another blog.

Submitted by the proud parent of a SB Community student.