Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 11, 1993 TAG: 9304110058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
10 SATURDAYS IN CLASS WORTH A SUMMER'S LIBERTY
When you're 14 years old, Saturday mornings are for sleeping in, catching a few cartoons and otherwise hanging out. At home.Unless you're a ninth-grader at Northside Junior High School - one who's worried about still being a ninth-grader next year.
Or - perhaps even worse - going to summer school.
Then Saturdays, at least for the next two months, mean tackling the challenges of topographical maps, puzzling the mysteries of coral reefs and cruising the texts of world geography.
And means getting out of bed and into school by 9 a.m.
Ouch.
Yet there they were Saturday, 15 teen-agers willingly forgoing Looney Tunes and Ninja Turtles for the culture of Southeast Asia.
"I never have taken this book home," said Leigh Fowler, as she thumbed through maps that held no interest for her during regular class hours.
"I just can't get into it," she explained.
So what got her into it on a Saturday?
"We get more time to look at it," she said. "If we need help, we get it."
Without extra help, many of these students would fail, said Assistant Principal Don Deyer. Not only geography and earth science, but the whole ninth grade. And that places them in danger of dropping out of school later.
To prevent that, he and Northside's ninth-grade guidance counselor, Betty Sandridge, identified the 20 students who scored lowest on standardized tests and made the lowest grades.
Deyer promised them doughnuts and sodas and possibly a pizza or pool party if they would plant themselves in front of a teacher instead of the television for 10 weekend mornings.
"If we can get them here, we can help them," he said.
So far so good.
On the program's first day - a bright, sunny, spring morning last weekend - 17 students showed up. Fifteen returned Saturday, with only a few claiming their parents forced them to.
"I figured we'd get a lot more, `I'm here cause my mamma made me.' But we didn't," Sandridge said.
They had stronger motivation.
"I figure if I get help, I'll pass and I won't have to go to summer school," said 14-year-old Michelle Coffman.
Her grades fell, she explained, because of time spent on basketball and track.
"The season's over and that's why I have to pull up all my grades," she said.
Coffman's attitude is typical, said Sandridge.
"Sports is a big problem."
But there are others. The difficulties of balancing work and social activities and problems with low self-esteem often plague students at that age, Sandridge said.
Most have the brain power to master their school work, she said. It's willpower they lack.
"They're all capable. They're just not sure of that yet," she said.
That's why individual help in a setting with fewer distractions can be critical, Sandridge said. It's the students who start to slip in ninth grade who often never recover.
The Saturday tutorial program marks the first time Roanoke County paid teachers to provide extra help on the weekend, said Assistant Superintendent Deanna Gordon. But it's not the first time the county offered extra help to its students.
Students at other county schools can get help before or after school if they need it. Salem schools also offer additional help to students whose grades are slipping, but they do it during regular class time.
The city offers remedial assistance through its Chapter One program, which uses federal money to provide tutoring to disadvantaged students.
Gordon said it's programs like Deyer's that help the county keep its dropout rate well below the state average of 3.2 percent. Last year, only 89 students - or 1.4 percent - stopped coming to school.
Deyer's weekend tutorials will cost the county $1,000 for two teachers and a custodian to work 10 Saturday mornings.
But the cost is minimal compared to the gains, Gordon said.
"We'll do anything to prevent a youngster from dropping out of school."
\ Dropout rates\ 1991-92 school year (grades 7-12)\ percentage no. of dropouts\ Roanoke 6.44% 355\ Roanoke County 1.44% 89\ Salem 2.48% 41\ State 3.26% 14,236