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Southampton County Public Schools administrators recently expressed positivity with how the division’s Saturday Academy has been going while also signaling a desire for a greater level of student attendance.

A REFRESHER ON SATURDAY ACADEMY

In January, SCPS began offering a Saturday learning opportunity to provide additional educational support and opportunities for eligible students. Designed to accelerate recovery from learning loss, this Saturday Academy will run through the first two Saturdays in June.

SCPS administrators gave an update on Saturday Academy during a Wednesday, March 27, meeting of the Southampton County School Board.

The presentation on Saturday Academy opened by noting that the school division was offering the academy through the Virginia Department of Education’s “ALL in VA” plan. This plan is a three-pronged approach to accelerate learning loss recovery by addressing attendance, literacy and learning.

The presentation described Saturday Academy as a “comprehensive educational high-dose tutoring program” that offers courses and activities to students on Saturdays, staffed with a team of highly qualified educational professionals.

ATTENDANCE DATA FOR GRADES 3-8

For January through March, total student attendance of Saturday Academy was 171, according to the presentation, with a total number of 62 students attending four-plus Saturdays.

For context, the presentation noted that the following numbers of students were eligible to attend Saturday Academy due to their scores in reading:

• Capron Elementary School: 107;
• Meherrin Elementary School: 123;
• Nottoway Elementary School: 118;
• Riverdale Elementary School: 269; and
• Southampton Middle School: 599.

The presentation also noted that the following numbers of students were eligible to attend Saturday Academy due to their scores in math:

• CES: 110;
• MES: 130;
• NES: 128;
• RES: 286; and
• SMS: 588.

Those tallies of students were broken up on charts into three categories:

• passing/reduced risk scores;
• at risk scores; and
• failing/non-proficient scores.

For each school in both reading and math, the largest category represented on the charts was failing/non-proficient scores.

The school division had a largely positive report with regard to school quality indicators related to accreditation, but the aforementioned student data helped highlight that some students need additional support, underscoring the importance of Saturday Academy and greater participation therein.

Following was the breakdown of Saturday Academy attendance by school for January-March:

• 6.4% of students were from CES; 
• 8.2% of students were from MES;
• 4.7% of students were from NES;
• 28.1% of students were from RES; and
• 52.6% of students were from SMS.

IMPROVEMENT DATA FOR GRADES 3-8

The presentation included some charts highlighting grade improvement and maintenance for students grades 3-8 who have attended Saturday Academy.

The improvement was discerned by taking the students’ grades in their courses as earned at the end of Quarter 2/Semester 1 and comparing them with their current Quarter 3 grades. Quarter 2/Semester 1 ended Jan. 31.

The presentation noted that elementary school students and some middle school students may be enrolled in multiple courses of the same type.

For students attending Saturday Academy for greater than or equal to four days, there have been 30 grade improvements, 37 maintained As and 27 maintained Bs across all subject areas.

Then a chart broke down by general subject area that total of 94 improved or maintained grades.

For English Language Arts, which includes Reading 3-8, Word Study 3-5 and Writing 3-5, there were 19 grade improvements, 34 maintained As and 16 maintained Bs.

For math, which includes Algebra Ready 6 & 7, Math 3-8, Pre-Algebra and Algebra I, there were 11 grade improvements, three maintained As and 11 maintained Bs.

Administrators for each school also briefly outlined for board members further ways they are implementing the VDOE’s ALL in VA plan with students, in addition to the utilization of Saturday Academy.