Enrichment Period was developed to give students 45 minutes of additional time on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the school day for assistance in core (Standards of Learning) classes in which they were experiencing academic problems. Math, English, Science, and Social Studies teachers are required to request students who have below a C average in their class to work with them during Enrichment Period. Non-SOL teachers were randomly assigned a class of 18-25 students and SOL teachers were not assigned Enrichment students.

SOL teachers request students for Enrichment Period by accessing a network folder containing each teacher’s Enrichment period roster on Excel spreadsheets. On the day of Enrichment period, the Enrichment teacher opens the spreadsheet and writes a special pass to send each requested student to the appropriate teacher. These small passes are printed on bright orange paper so anyone in the hall at the beginning of Enrichment period will know the students are moving from one teacher to another. Once students are requested, they stay with the requesting teacher the entire period. Students who are not requested by a teacher that period stay in their assigned Enrichment teacher’s classroom and work on homework, study, or read. Administrators openly go class to class during this period to check on student progress and activity.

We ask teachers to sign up for the students by lunch the previous day. If a teacher is late signing up, they can still sign up but with no guarantees the student will be sent. If two teachers want the same student, the teachers need to communicate and work out a solution. If a student is not requested by an SOL teacher, a non-SOL teacher can request to call the student in for help as long as they can also manage their Enrichment class. Rules and expectations are shared in writing with all teachers at the beginning of the school year and with all substitute teachers each time they substitute on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We have experienced a decrease in the number of students failing since the first six weeks the program was initiated. The principal has statistical data available showing the decrease by grade level of student failures for each six weeks grading period. In addition, anecdotal evidence shows that students are requesting teachers send for them during Enrichment for additional help with classwork.