Saturday School is an academic project that will support the continued efforts of the Lafayette Parish School System to academically advance students. The project will specifically focus on core subject to ensure students are at grade level, pass EOC and graduate high school. The goal of the program is push students to new academic heights as we encourage them to be lifelong learners who share their knowledge and skill set with other Lafayette residents. This program has the potential to: improve student academic performance, which will allow student’s to be on grade level and increase the number of students who are graduating from high school with a traditional high school diploma.

Currently, there are a number of failing or lack of academic progress schools within Lafayette Parish. These schools range from elementary to high school, with all of the schools being within the Transformation Zone. The Transformation Zone is an area within Lafayette Parish that receives additional funding to support the academic and professional growth of students and educators. Although there is a clear effort from the school board to support academic growth within the transformation zone, many students are more than one grade level behind, which makes it difficult to obtain academic success with in the school year. My idea is to support the efforts of the transformation zone as we focus on developing student’s academic skills in a smaller and engaging learning environment. I would like to begin Saturday School by diagnosing students’ area of weakness to provide student’s with additional academic support to ensure they reach grade level standards and pass their end of the year state exam.

In order to ensure participation and academic growth, the Saturday School session will be four weeks. The schedule will be as follows:

Week 1: Diagnostic Week. Students will be tested to determine their area(s) of weakness. This test will determine where they will be placed for the remanding three Saturdays.

Weeks 2-4: Teachers will develop students’ academic skills through a supportive and engaging learning environment. Students will be able to take up to two core classes a Saturday. Courses that will be offered are: Science, Social Studies, Math, and Language Arts.

Certified educators who have been trained to provide engaging activities for at risk students will provide academic support. The activities will be directly aligned to the states educational standards for each grade level to ensure academic growth.

Working together as a community to provide students with additional academic support will help to improve the academic performance of our students, the schools performance score and the removal of the transformation zone stigma. Education is the key to improving the number of Lafayette residences, who graduate high school, receive post secondary education or training and become employed within the state of Louisiana. Programs such as Saturday School will allows students to feel supported as we encourage their commitment to learning.