Program Combines Counseling, Academics to Boost Promising Students
RE’AL, AN EIGHTH-GRADER at Hopkins West Jr. High, rarely finished her homework in the past. She usually earned Cs in her classes—sometimes below. When she was invited to join an after-school academic program, she wasn’t interested. That is until she found out that a number of other African-American students, who are in the minority at the school, would be participating too. Today she consistently finishes her schoolwork and brings home As and Bs.
Re’al’s improvement is representative of her fellow students—20 in all—in the SOAR (Students on Academic Rise) program at Hopkins West, which combines academic tutoring and counseling. In a single semester, their grade point averages increased an average of more than 0.4, and their behavior improved in demonstrable ways.
Geography teacher Kim Campbell founded SOAR after a “defining moment” when an African-American boy said to her, “I’ve been thinking, why do all the white kids do so much better than we do? We need a place.” Campbell decided to create that place for students with potential who lack the support and resources they need to succeed.
Campbell expanded and formalized the program in 2007, enlisting the help of associate professor Kay Herting Wahl, director of school counseling and clinical training in the Department of Educational Psychology. Herting Wahl helped secure a grant used to hire academic coaches, each of whom works with four or five SOAR students. The SOAR coaches include teachers and community members who offer one-on-one tutoring and work with school counselor Sarah Coffey to plan leadership and social skill-building activities. The counselor alerts coaches to issues that might affect behavior and schoolwork, and coaches can ask the counselor to meet with a student who is showing signs of personal problems.
Alicia went from not caring
about her grades to aiming
for straight As and a future
career as an attorney.
enlarge photo
“The fact that SOAR addresses so many areas—academics, leadership, community building, and culture—makes it unique among after-school programs,” Herting Wahl explains. “One of SOAR’s main goals is to help students see how their attitudes, work ethic, and motivation about school will impact their college and career opportunities.” The low student-to-coach ratio is also unique and helps promote the idea that relationships are key to student success.
Teachers nominate the SOAR participants from seventh- and eighth-grade students who qualify for free or reduced lunch and who demonstrate academic and leadership potential but need additional help. Participants must give up other after-school activities, maintain a “C” average, steer clear of disciplinary problems, attend SOAR regularly, and complete homework. In exchange, the students can earn rewards and attend field trips to Gopher basketball games, The Children’s Theatre Company, and arcades. Re’al says she particularly enjoys trips to GameWorks and having pizza and other treats.
The SOAR students also educate others by speaking to Herting Wahl’s class on child and adolescent counseling. They offer real-world perspectives on peer pressure, the stress of schoolwork, dating, bullying, drugs and alcohol, sexual activity, and discrimination. Herting Wahl’s graduate students indicated that the SOAR visit was the most valuable session of her course, and the Hopkins students cited it as their favorite field trip. One of the adolescents commented: “We sure taught them a lot.”
Herting Wahl measured the results of SOAR for 2007–08, tracking grades, attendance, and disciplinary referrals. She describes the increase in the students’ mean grade point average from 2.246 to 2.660 in one semester as “very significant.” Herting Wahl also asked students, parents, and teachers to complete questionnaires about SOAR. Parents reported that they saw improvements in their children’s attitudes about school, homework completion, cooperation at home, and planning for college and careers. Teachers also noted that the students’ attitudes and behavior improved.
Herting Wahl credits the students’ improvement to Campbell, the coaches’ enthusiasm, and the students’ “willingness to attempt a new way of thinking about themselves and school.” She recalls that when one student was asked why she worked so hard, she said, “I didn’t want to disappoint my coach.”
Campbell says SOAR’s success is based on direct and assertive communication with the students, high expectations, and adults who demonstrate that they care. She hears daily from students who want to participate. However, securing additional grants to supplement state targeted-services funding is an ongoing need. She hopes SOAR can become a model used in schools with demographics similar to those of Hopkins West. She and Herting Wahl are also writing a book about the program.
Hopkins West Jr. High Principal Terry Wolfson calls SOAR “the best after-school support program I’ve ever seen for kids. They are getting a picture of what their lives can be.”