Beaufort County School District looks 'out of the box' to close achievement gap
A four-day school week.
Classes extended through June.
A semester or year spent entirely on learning to read.
Superintendent Jeff Moss has posed those ideas and more as possible solutions to the Beaufort County School District's nagging achievement gap for minority students.
They would go far beyond the more traditional approaches the district is already taking, such as hiring extra reading teachers and enhancing student interventions.
Several board members applauded the proposals, which Moss formed in response to district statistics that show black and Hispanic students trailed their white peers by up to 20 to nearly 40 percentage points on assessments for English language arts, math, science and history last year.
For example, black students in third through eighth grades performed about 37.5 percent worse than white students on English language arts and 38 percentage points worse on the ACT Aspire math test.
Hispanic students performed nearly 30 percentage points worse than their white peers on the SCPASS science test, district statistics show.
Moss did not provide cost estimates for his proposals, though he said one -- a four-day school week -- would not cost the district any more money. In that plan, only students who have not mastered their materials by Thursday would be required to attend school on Friday for more individualized instruction.
The last day of the week would become a chance to play catch up so all students are ready to begin learning new material on Monday, Moss said.
Another idea involved more class time, not less. Moss suggested extending the school year through June for students who are not proficient by the end of the year.
That plan would replace summer school, but would still require a greater commitment from teachers willing to work an extra month.
Finally, he asked the board to weigh in on a reading and language immersion academy, in which students who do not speak English or are not proficient readers would study only those subjects for one semester to a year.
Veronica Zacarias, a Hilton Head Island mother who is active in her Hispanic community off Bryan Road, said she liked the sound of that initiative. However, she anticipates many other parents will have reservations about their children falling behind in other subjects if the district were to place them in an English language immersion academy.
Educating parents too would be key, Zacarias said, so they are "able to understand that (students) are missing so much just because their English skills are not that good."
Zacarias also echoed concerns of board members who said some parents are not doing their part to keep kids on track. Among Hispanic families, Zacarias said, the issue is often parents thinking they don't have enough education to help their children.
"In our country, they weren't fully educated, which is fine but we're not in our country anymore," said Zacarias, who is originally from Mexico. "So we've got to keep moving and we've got to keep supporting our kids."
While Moss was criticized in his annual review for not producing results in closing the gap, his ideas met with some resistance last week from school board members, who said the district must go further to engage parents who are uninvolved or unsure how to help their children succeed.
"We can sit here and have many of these proposals but we have parents out there that are uneducated as far as how to help their youngsters," member Bill Payne said. "The parents have to buy into it also just like our teachers and administrators are buying into it."
Bush added that the district should consider revisiting an old program that sent "parent advocates" directly to students' homes to discuss their children's specific needs.
"We need to find another way to reach them, so we might want to consider an out-of-the-box program that involves home visits," Bush said.
Moss noted the district added a welcome center this year to register international and immigrant students, screen their English proficiency and analyze their immunizations. He also said last week he will present a plan for engaging parents at the board's work sessions Feb. 5 and 6.
Board member Michael Rivers cautioned the board from blaming parents to deflect from its own duties.
"Sure, the parents have a responsibility, but you're asking somebody to do something that professionals have the ability to do," Rivers said. "That's almost like passing the buck."
Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.
Related content:
- Beaufort County schools seek to close achievement gap, again, December 10, 2015
- Beaufort County superintendent Jeff Moss gets high marks in school board evaluation; wife's hiring left out, November 25, 2015
- Schools to focus on black students, March 28, 2011
This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 7:22 PM with the headline "Beaufort County School District looks 'out of the box' to close achievement gap."