South Cook News

The Chicago Ridge School District is finding new ways to combat learning gaps.

At their Feb. 14 meeting, the board was introduced to an idea that administrators had been working on for some time. 

Superintendent Dr. Adam Thorns brought up the topic of intervention time. The idea is to have time set aside in the school week for teachers and support staff to be able to help kids catch up in areas where they are struggling, rather than teachers having to address them during their normal teaching time and not get to all the lessons and subjects they are required to within the year. 

"It's something we've been grappling with for a while, how to build that in, and especially now coming out of the pandemic, those those gaps need to be filled a lot more than they have in the past," Thorns said in the meeting. "And we really think that this is the best way forward for that. We also continuously talk when we discuss NTSS and our tiers, that our Tier 1 instruction is the part that has to get so much stronger. And that is like the core of what you're teaching with everybody."

Thorns explained that they would create a 30-minute block in the day for their 4th- and 5th graders, and for middle schoolers they would use the current 21-minute study hall that they have. While administrators are not sure what resources they will be using for this intervention time, it is something they are very serious about pursuing for the next school year, especially to address the learning gaps that were magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic. They are not necessarily planning to pull individual kids for these sessions but instead have support staff working with select small groups with identified needs.

While this was initially brought to the board as just informational and would be voted on once a formal plan was presented, board members were concerned about how they would schedule the sessions and work them into students’ schedules without taking away from anything else. 

The board also addressed their academic fees for the upcoming school year, as registration for the 2023-24 school year begins in April. Their current fees are $125 for elementary students and $130 for middle school students. The board is planning to keep those fees the same for the upcoming year as well as offering the early signup discount during the first two weeks of April, taking $30 off per student.