Saturday School began at CHS on March 5th.
In-class school on the weekend? Cascade High School sees school on Saturday as a means to reach struggling students.
On Saturday March 5th, CHS began “Saturday School” for students who “need extra support to get caught up in classes.” The Saturday morning sessions will be held every other week from 8:30 to 11:30 and are designed to provide a second chance to learn content missed or not grasped the first time around. Certified teachers will be present to support and assist students.
CHS principal, Elia Ala’ilima-Daley, described Saturday School as “a program to both help students with incompletes from the pandemic and those who are falling behind this semester.” Daley explained that during the period in which school was online in 2020 and 2021, any student who received an incomplete grade in a class can, until they graduate, complete the class for full credit. One facet of “Saturday School,” Daley explained “is to set aside a block of time, teacher assisted, for those students to complete their work from past semesters. The other piece is to set aside that same block of time, again teacher aided, for students falling behind this semester. We are already several weeks into the semester and some of our kids could benefit from being away from the bustle of a normal school day to have three hours to focus on a specific subject, to get caught up, and go from there.”
Efforts to extend school hours to the weekend (and even to extend the school year) are common across the country, particularly in schools where a significant portion of kids are prone to fall behind their classmates. The modern movement for longer hours was aided by former President Barak Obama who was a proponent of lengthening school hours. During his tenure, on a televised “Special Forum on Education” on NBC, the President said, “I think we should have our kids going to school longer hours. We now have our kids go to school about a month less than other advanced countries. And that month makes a difference.” That viewpoint was backed up by research out of the Massachusetts Department of Education, which conducted a study in 2006-07 finding that increasing the school day by 25 percent resulted in an improvement in test scores of 5-10 percent.”
Rather than increase hours across the board, CHS is doing so in a manner focused on those who will most benefit from the extra hours. “Once a student is caught up, they can stop. They don’t necessarily have to come back the next Saturday,” said Daley, who also stated that “while funding is always an issue, we do hope that Saturday School will continue into the next school year and become a permanent part of CHS. I know the staff value it; I hope the students will too.”
Staff who have already been involved include Dayle Massey and Roselyn Robison. Teachers Ravits, Weil, and Boggs, among others, have expressed their support and interest.
“We are trying to prepare students for the next step,” said Daley. “In kindergarten, for example, it’s to be prepared for first grade. We are just scaled up in high school and we are trying to prepare our students for whatever they do in life afterward, whether that be the workforce, trade school or college. We don't want kids to lose hope or motivation. We are trying to be proactive and give everyone every opportunity possible here to succeed in high school and life.”
Freshman Napiqua Gibbs echoed Daley’s sentiments when she said that she felt Saturday School “would be beneficial for those who might need extra time to get work done. It will give them the opportunity to work on what they need to work on.”
Similarly, sophomore Blue Knutson felt that “availing help from teachers to students
who need it, without the normal daily time limits, is a very good idea.”
Saturday School is taking a break for the upcoming spring break and will resume on April 16th.
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