Study tables offered at schools

EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- Not content being a C-average student, seventh-grader Bakari Flemmings stays after school three days a week, giving up an hour of playtime to study and do homework.\n"You can't get into Harvard without As and Bs," she said.\nFlemmings is one of more than 100 Glenwood Middle School students taking advantage of a "study tables" program that pairs students eager to boost their grades with teachers who volunteer their time.\nEighty-six percent of Glenwood's students are on free or reduced lunch by the way federal officials measure poverty rates.\nPrincipal Sheila Huff devised the study table idea after noticing that many students seemed to do relatively well on tests but had Ds and Fs on their report cards.\nWhen she investigated, she found that many of them weren't turning in their homework.\n"They wouldn't do it, or they would say they forgot it or lost it," Huff told the Evansville Courier & Press for a story Saturday.\n"We wondered if maybe they didn't have a place at home to do the work or if they just needed to learn to be organized."\nThe after-school program began with about 50 students, grew to 75 and now has more than 100 students out of an enrollment of about 300. Eighteen teachers volunteer their time for the effort.\nStudents taking part in the program have a variety of reasons why they come into the cafeteria after school to study instead of going home.\nLinzee Ellington, a seventh-grader, gets good grades, but shows up at the study tables to get her homework out of the way. "If I go home, I watch TV, work on the computer, play outside. I forget all about homework, and then in the morning I get in trouble," she said.\nJacobi Fitzgerald, a sixth grader, said he has "nothing lower than a C, but I can do better. Here I can be with friends and still get it done."\nRicky Goad, a sixth-grader, said he had four Fs on his most recent report card, but is starting to turn his grades around. "This will help me raise my grades. So far I've raised an F to a B in English," he said.\nHuff said Glenwood is a 21st Century Learning Center school, meaning she had funds to pay for after-school programs such as the study tables.\nShe sent letters about the program home to parents of students who were failing. Huff uses the 21st Century money to provide an after-school snack, such as muffins, cheese and crackers and milk or juice.\nAbout 10 minutes later, students are sitting at tables, working on assignments or reading, occasionally raising a hand to seek help.\nTeachers go from table to table, offering help for those who need it, checking the agenda books of those who aren't doing homework to see if there's something they need to be working on.\nMath teacher Joanne Johnson said she volunteers because she wants to help students who have a desire to improve their grades. "If the students are willing to stay, I'm willing to stay with them," she said.