The story is in the numbers
We are happy and excited to announce that we are launching a Junior High Enrichment program this year! The Elementary has had a tremendously successful enrichment program (Explore) that serves high achieving students. At the JRSR side, we offer advanced placement and honors-level courses starting in ninth grade, but our Junior High has been sorely neglected when it comes to serving the needs of our high achieving students. We started to identify this problem last year, and the more that we dug into the data and learned about enrichment models, the more it became apparent how badly we needed to create a program for junior high students.
In our Junior High, 25 students scored in the 90th percentile or above in one or more subject areas on the most recent Iowa Exams. Viewed as a percentage of our Junior High population, that means that over 35% of our junior high is high achieving in at least one subject area (often in multiple). The 90th percentile that is referenced here means that these students scored better than 90 percent of the rest of the nation. In literal terms, 35% of our Junior High is currently in the top 10 percent of the national average in at least one subject area. These students need, at least at times, a different classroom environment that enables school to continue to challenge them and affords them unique opportunities to get creative about different subject areas.
The model
Our model allows us to pull high achieving students out of a study hall once per week and into a dedicated time of enrichment instead. We are calling this time of enrichment “Learning Workshop,” and it will be a time to dive deeper, get creative, and get hands-on within different subject areas. The content will rotate by quarter between four key areas of learning (Language Arts, Science, Mathematics, and Social Studies). As the content area rotates, the instructor of Learning Workshop will also rotate to match the discipline. The end result is that we are able to selectively pull students for the specific content area in which they are high achieving. There are no grades (that’s not what motivates these learners), but there will be a lot of creative learning taking place. We have tried to learn well from what Elementary has been doing, and their advice has been invaluable as we have sought to design the program on this side (special thanks here to Suzy Eitzen who has dedicated a lot of time to help us think well).
We know that high achieving students benefit when they are removed from the regular learning environment, placed alongside other high achieving students, and given curiosity-based and discovery-based challenges. Imagine students who excel at math solving complex math problems to get out of an escape room. Imagine students who excel at history doing a deep dive into a specific figure or event just for the fun of it. Imagine students who excel in science solving real world problems or conducting their own experiments, and imagine students who excel at language arts crafting their own stories and being guided & challenged to read material that is beyond their normal level.
Three criteria are evaluated as we identify high achieving students:
- Students who score at or above the 90th percentile in a subject area on the Iowa exam
- Students who receive a recommendation from an FRCS teacher indicating that they need to be challenged at a level beyond what is normative within the grade
- Students who have a history of being in the Explore program at Elementary
As we identify high achieving students, we communicate home with those specific families. If a family ever wants to opt-out of Learning Workshop for any reason, they always can (parents can always decline services), and there is no additional cost to participate in Learning Workshop.
Let’s Celebrate!
Our students are tremendous—and not because they are high achieving. No—they are tremendous because they are made in the image of God, and they each possess varying gifts, passions, and unique abilities. It is our job as their home and their school to help them as they continue to discover their giftedness and to foster it so that they might use their gifts, passions, and abilities to impact the world for Christ.
From,
Eli Spector and Jen Carlson
Potential questions
How do you determine which students participate?
The principal and assistant principal make final decisions based on the three criteria listed above: 1) Iowa data above the 90th percentile, 2) teacher recommendation, and 3) prior enrollment in Explore at Elementary.
Is there a cost for Learning Workshop?
Never.
Is participation voluntary or mandatory?
Parents can always decline services for any reason.
If my student is high achieving in all four areas, will he/she be able to participate in all of them?
Yes!
Why did you decide on a quarterly rotation?
Because it fits nicely with the four major academic disciplines.
Will there be homework since there are no grades?
Not in the traditional sense. It wouldn’t be surprising to us if these students worked on tasks for Learning Workshop outside of the dedicated class time (just because they can’t help themselves), but we won’t be assigning any homework that is for a grade.
Are there eventual plans to provide honors-level courses for Junior High or increased enrichment opportunities at Senior High?
Now you’re onto it. We are not currently structured for either of these, but we think both honors level classes at Junior High and increased enrichment opportunities at Senior High are somewhat inevitable given the student achievement data we are seeing. In other words, this version of Learning Workshop is not the final solution, but it is a significant step in the right direction.
