Social studies department teacher Alex Yates assists freshman TayShaune Dowdy at Saturday School on Dec. 3. Dowdy feels Saturday School has been effective for him, and enjoys attending. “(I came to Saturday School) to pick my grades up because they were terrible,” Dowdy said. “Saturday School helps me because I can sit with a teacher who can show me how to do (my work).” Photo by Andrew Caldwell
By ELENA GILBERTSON HALL – Staff Writer
Saturday School is a program offered at Clarke Central High School several times per semester, and allows students to remediate and catch up on missing assignments outside of the classroom.
The Clarke Central High School Saturday School program, administered by English department teacher Zachary Thrower, is a part of the federally funded Pathways to Success Program that also provides tutoring after school on Mondays and Thursdays.
According to Thrower, Saturday School is a beneficial way for students to focus on completing their work and improving their grades.
“If you think about after-school tutoring, it’s very possible that people are kind of fried, and they just aren’t as productive as they could be,” Thrower said. “At Saturday School, we really try to get as much done as we can, and it seems to be way more productive than after-school tutoring.”
Freshman Jenifer Hernandez believes Saturday School is beneficial for students who have trouble concentrating in class.
“Sometimes there’s just a lot of people in weekday classes and I get distracted because they’re pretty loud, and (at Saturday School) it’s quieter,” Hernandez said. “Also the teachers are more one on one so they’re helping more than a normal class or tutoring.”
Despite its benefits, freshman James Derrickson thinks Saturday School allows students who may skip or act out in class to still get good grades.
“It’s better to just work in class and do your actual work instead of just doing nothing and then going to Saturday School and making the work up,” Derrickson said.
However, Thrower says teachers at Saturday School work to solve this problem by talking to students about focusing on their work during the school week.
“Teachers definitely are not happy about a kid that’s messing around in the regular school hours having the opportunity to come on a Saturday to make things up. And that’s why we have those conversations in Saturday School where we tell kids, ‘Don’t come here and work and then go back to school on Monday and just fool around the entire time,’” Thrower said.
Math department chair Heather Julian has been a part of the program since it began four years ago, and believes curriculum must be understood by students, even if it requires time out of class.
“I would love every student to do everything they’re supposed to do in class, (do their) homework and prepare for the original test, (but) it’s still important to have them learn the material, (even if it’s on Saturday),” Julian said.
Thrower says that he often sees students who come to Saturday School demonstrate the positive behavior they learn on Saturdays during the regular school week.
“In the spring, we see kids who are regularly coming start improving in Monday through Friday. So, they kind of start feeling like, ‘OK, I’m putting in this effort, maybe it’s time to stop fooling around in my classes and buckle down,’ and teachers across the board report that,” Thrower said. “They see some kids growing up a little bit as the year goes on.”
More from Elena Gilbertson Hall
