One of Dave Dotson’s students in his after school program whizzes through a computer exercise while another student takes her time. Both are working diligently but at their own pace, says Dotson, an assistant principal at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School, 325 S. Kenilworth Ave. in Oak Park.
This first-floor computer lab has about a dozen kids at work. In a third-floor classroom, five students are participating in Power Hour, a homework tutoring program with their teacher, Norma Cassin, who teaches eighth grade history. They’re learning about the involvement of certain minority groups during World War II, like Japanese American’s who were interned in U.S. prison camps by the government following Pearl Harbor.
All the kids in these programs are among the academically-struggling students Dotson is overseeing this school year.
It’s a new effort spearheaded by Supt. Albert Roberts to reach out to struggling students and their families. Dotson, along with Chemaine Carr, assistant principal at Percy Julian Middle School, run the after school program with their staff. Some of their students have special needs and all struggle with their grades and behavior.
According to Roberts, the goal is to help the students and better engage their parents. About 130 middle school kids have been identified for help. The first step was to put an assistant principal from each middle school in charge of the outreach effort. Roberts also instituted a flexible schedule for the APs, where they can opt to start work later than the normal 8 a.m. start while leaving later in the day.
Dotson might start work earlier if he’s needed or he’ll arrive around 10 a.m.
“I don’t think about it that much,” he said. “If I’m needed at a 7 o’clock meeting, then I’ll be here, and I know Chemaine feels the same way because you want to stay connected and this is how you stay connected.”
The computer lab runs daily while the Power Hour runs three times a week at both schools. The students use the FastForWord program in the lab, a computer-based program the district purchased this year to help students improve in language and cognitive skills. Other programs are offered after school at each school, such as a Taekwondo at Brooks and a mentoring program at Julian for kids with “leadership potential.”
Carr has had experience in outreach prior to joining D97. Carr became an AP at Julian, 416 S. Ridgeland Ave., this year, coming over from the Chicago Public Schools where she was a high school teacher. Carr had experience at CPS working with “under-achieving” kids — she prefers that term versus “at-risk” which can have many negative connotations, she said.
As a mother herself, Carr says she’s able to talk with the students, especially the boys, in a way that reaches them.
“Some are like a second son to me. I have an African American son, so they do get lectures from me as well,” she said. “When I tell them to pull their pants up, they know to do it, so much so that I don’t have to say it anymore once they see me in the hallway.”
The outreach effort will eventually include home visits with the families but for this first year the focus has been on helping the kids, though Carr and Dotson do talk with parents. Both said parents’ response has been positive, but they’ve mainly focused on getting more students to attend the programs, which do not have a mandatory attendance.
“I’m trying to get as many kids to buy-in to it as possible,” Dotson said. He’s hoping to have 25-30 kids for the FastForWord program alone next year, up from the 18 or so who have participated this year.
