Starlight Elementary School shines in tutoring at-risk students

Instead of ‘‘holding a club" over students at risk of flunking, Starlight Elementary is doing the opposite. And so far it’s working. To deal with new legislation that bans "social promotion" and mandates schools to begin programs to identify and assist at-risk students, Starlight created SITT. The Starlight Intervention Team Tutorial is a before-school, after-school, lunch-hour and Saturday academy for the 123 students that educators there identified as being in danger of being held back.

Irene McGinty, professional development coordinator at Starlight, said traditional pupil promotion and retention policies can devastate students.

"They fear being separated from their social peers, and acknowledgment of being at risk can be very demoralizing for children," she said.

The Starlight program, and others in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, takes a different tack,

"Instead of targeting students as nonlearners, we help them look at themselves as learners," McGinty said.

When fifth-grader Evelyn Martinez started school in August, she was having trouble reading and writing in English.

"When I got an answer wrong, Mr. Perez wouldn’t give me the right answer," Martinez said. I had to figure it out for myself so that I got it right in my head."

Now, she reads and writes with confidence and is set to advance to the sixth grade.

In addition to classroom help, teachers meet with students and their parents individually to help identify strengths and weaknesses and set short- and long-term goals.

"About 99.9 percent of the kids in the program had trouble with reading and language, so we decided to teach the course in English," said Mike Perez, migrant education teacher and SITT co-founder.

"We also grouped the kids according to their specific levels and needs and developed a three-tier system so they could advance," he said.

Of the 123 students assigned to the program when school started, 100 will move on to the next grade while 23 will attend mandatory summer school.

"This is a great example of schools pulling together with the community to help get the kids off the list," Principal Noni Ries said.

"The program has been well-accepted by the students and well-received by the community," she said. "Attendance and grades are improving."

The Pajaro Valley district plans to use a $1.2 million grant from the Santa Cruz County Human Resources Agency to finance programs like SITT at other elementary and middle schools, and to create other academic enrichment programs.

‘Instead of targeting students as nonlearners, we help them look at themselves as learners.’

Irene McGinty, Starlight Elementary