Little Rock's Hall High School will receive an outfit of AmeriCorps members next fall to help rescue struggling students' academic performances.
City Year, a program that embeds AmeriCorps members in struggling schools around the country, will send a handful of 19- to 25-year-old college graduates to Hall High School, which was designated as academically distressed four years ago, a district official said.
On Wednesday, Little Rock business leaders announced a $150,000 contribution to the program from the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce and Fifty for the Future to enable City Year's expansion into Hall. Funding for the program also comes in equal parts from AmeriCorps and the Little Rock School District.
"Hall is really in need of that assistance, because what we know by the data is that the kids that matriculate in are not of the skill level that we need them to be for high school," said Associate Superintendent Marvin Burton said after the announcement. The City Year members "will be part of the whole structure of education for these kids."
The program will focus primarily on Hall's incoming ninth-grade students who have been identified by teacher recommendations and previous academic performance. Each City Year member will tend to up to 15 students who are either struggling academically, behaviorally or with attendance.
City Year members are involved in the school environment every day, from before the morning bell rings until after-school activities -- so-called wrap-around services. Facilitating school clubs, helping with homework and calling home after a student's absence, the corps members become closely knit to the students' life at school.
"Traditionally if you had a kid that was a little bit behind, the teacher would have to stop, meet that student where they were at, while everybody else gets kind of frustrated. When you have a corps member in the classroom, that corps member can just go and sit next to that student and work with them directly," said Sarah Roberson, vice president and executive director of City Year Little Rock.
"The teachers are driving the bus, and the corps members are assisting with the navigation," Roberson said.
Additionally, if students are struggling in a particular area, corps members can pull them out from their extracurricular classes for one-on-one tutoring.
The school district's data system monitors students in the program and compares their progress to the student body.
"We see almost immediate success, and where they may need more intensive support," Burton said.
According to the program's data, 74 percent of students tutored by a City Year member improved their overall literacy score on standardized assessments, while 77 percent increased scores on standardized math assessments. And 96 percent of teachers working with City Year agree that, when its members are involved in the classroom, student engagement increases, according to City Year data.
The AmeriCorps program first entered the Little Rock School District in 2004 at Baseline Elementary School. Hall High School will be City Year's seventh participating school in the district, following Mabelvale Elementary, Mabelvale Middle, Cloverdale Middle, J.A. Fair High School, and McClellan High School.
Currently 54 corps members are serving over 3,000 students in Little Rock's lowest performing schools, according to a news release.
Next year, Burton said, Henderson Middle School may also adopt the program.
"It's a natural feeder pattern. Most of the students from Cloverdale will matriculate to McClellan; most of the students from Mabelvale Middle will matriculate to J.A. Fair," Burton said. "It's a natural transition to try and bring Henderson into the fold for the Henderson students that matriculate to Hall."
School leaders originally tried to start the program at Hall last year, but they delayed after the program could not assemble a group of corps members with a diversity profile that matches that of the school. Roughly 25 percent of Hall is Hispanic, Burton said, and this year a few of the corps members are bilingual.
"A lot of these members have a passion for education, a lot of them have a passion for social work, and a lot of them know they want to make a difference but they just don't know how," Roberson said. Each of them is specifically vetted to fit the Little Rock district.
Metro on 05/26/2016