MICHAEL MARESH
mmaresh@lahontanvalleynews.com
Lahontan Valley News


May 22, 2008

At 2:45 p.m., students from across the district scatter in different directions, but 60 students work their way toward Numa Elementary School for a different and additional type of learning.

A $101,000 five-year grant the district received from 21st Century is helping some students catch up with their classmates.

The after school program called Academics in Motion started in September, The new program at Numa focuses on younger students, said Lana Scharmann, recreational enrichment coordinator and site director.
She said the focus is getting students on an even playing field with their peers.

"We wanted to focus on skill building at this age," she said. "If we catch them up now, it helps."

Sue Chambers, federal programs facilitator for the district and after-school Coordinator Andrea Zeller worked on obtaining the grant.

Scharmann said skill building tests students to gauge the subjects in which they are struggling.
"We test them to see what skills they are missing," she said, adding 60 students from across the district are enrolled in AIM.

The program uses LeapTrack to teach and gauge where students are in various subjects.

LeapTrack, she said, focuses on helping students with reading, math and language arts, and administrators asked the program if a priority this year could be reading.

"It makes it easier," she said of how LeapTrack monitors learning a student's progress.

"We have talked to other schools. This is one that we were told is beneficial. It's like an individualized educational plan."

She added rewards are given to the students for good results.

Scharmann said one hour each day is for set aside for recreational enrichment, a fun-learning exercise. She explained these exercises could include cooking or astronomy.

"We are changing activities all the time so they can learn," she said, adding a few advanced students are attending the program.

Another benefit, she said, is seeing students come out of their "shells," as they continue to learn. She mentioned a first-grade girl who did not want to attend school before taking part in AIM.

Now, she loves school," Scharmann said.

Barbara Smith, a secretary with the program, said every student in the program has improved his or her grades. The average improvement is 11.3 percentage points.

"Some students went from F's to B's," Smith said. "Everyone went up some. It's building confidence."

Scharmann said principals were at first apprehensive of AIM until they started seeing the results and improvements in students' grades. She added teachers continuously inform the program what they would like it to teach students.

Originally, students in the AIM program had to be referred by a principal, but the after school program still had room when the referrals were completed.

Students in the program attending an elementary school other than Numa are bused into the site at about 3 p.m. and AIM ends at about 5:30 p.m. everyday,

Scharmann said the only disadvantage to AIM is families must arrange some type of transportation to take the students home because the district does not provide any.