School plan offers stability for students
1/20/2009Toledo Public Schools and the Lagrange Village Council are working to help students stay in the same school all year.
It's not uncommon for a family to move to a different part of town during a school year, causing a student to need to switch schools, but research shows that can have a negative effect on the student's learning, district officials and community activists say.
That's why TPS and the Lagrange Village Council have started a pilot program that the council is calling "One School 4 One year" to make it easier for students to stay in one building throughout the year.
"It's so much disruption to the classroom, to the student who is leaving and those who are staying," said Beth Lewandowski, vice president of the Lagrange Village Council.
"And the parents don't get the strong ties to the teachers and the schools because they're moving during the year."
While the district already offers the option for students to stay in their old school to finish out the year if they move, transportation can be a problem for some families.
The pilot program will help with that by working with the district's transportation department to find ways for elementary students to continue using yellow school buses to get to the school in their old neighborhoods.
It was too expensive to add buses, routes, and drivers for these students, Superintendent John Foley said, but there could be options for students to use existing routes to get to their old schools.
This pilot program, which is to be announced during a news conference this morning at Rosa Parks Elementary School, will focus mostly on North Toledo elementary schools - Rosa Parks, Sherman, Lagrange, Riverside, Chase, as well as Ottawa River and Edgewater.
Mr. Foley said the partnership with Lagrange Village Council will help district officials get information to parents early so they can make arrangements for their children during such moves.
Students who cannot get school bus service have the option to use TARTA.
Since some parents don't want to send their first grader off to school alone on a TARTA bus, Ms. Lewandowski said the Lagrange Village Council is planning to use some grant money it received from the Toledo Community Foundation to get bus passes so parents can ride with the children.
Sometimes circumstances, such as the down economy, can result in two, three, or four moves a school year for some families, Ms. Lewandowksi said.
Lagrange Village Council is also working with Jobs and Family Services to help neighborhood families, she said.
"Not only do we want to make the students academically successful, but also to make the families more stable," Ms. Lewandowski said.
Student mobility can affect a student academically and socially.
Some of the problems include differences in stages of lesson plans, number of school days missed during the move, and a student's unfamiliarity and unease with a new situation.
"There's a whole lot of factors that go into learning," Mr. Foley said.
"If kids are comfortable, they're going to be better off."
Contact Meghan Gilbert at:
mgilbert@theblade.com
or 419-724-6134.