D300 students put  education research to the test

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High school students Laura Saldivar (left, Jacobs) and Savannah Mayer (background, Hampshire) help out day campers (from left) Cameron Kumor,8, and his brother Kaden,9, Bri Hernandez, 7, Whitney Glenon, 7, and Rachel Ruhnke, 7, in a tug-of-war contest Tuesday during a Healthy Living and Learning Camp at Hampshire Elementary School. For the first time in District 300, students from all three high schools will be offered the opportunity to join together to form a coalition dedicated to closing the achievement gap in the Healthy Living and Learning Camp. These high school students will form and enact a Service-Learning Action Plan (SLAP) within the community. This plan will target 1st and 2nd graders in each of D300’s Elementary Schools in order to enrich children at a young age on the effectiveness of service learning. This program is aimed at improving attendance and grade level academics, and will run approximately four hours a day for two weeks at three of the elementary schools in District 300, at no charge to the students. July 12, 2011 | Michael Smart~Sun-Times Media

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Updated: July 17, 2011 2:36AM

HAMPSHIRE — What does tug-of-war have to do with raising test scores?

“It’s proven if you’re active, it gets your brain basically flowing,” said Dylan Meier, 17, of Algonquin.

“I don’t know the science of it.”

But Meier, a senior at Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville, and students in Community Unit School District 300’s high school Service-Learning Action Plan group do know the research.

That’s what inspired the students to organize the Healthy Living and Learning Camp this summer at district elementary schools. The camp is one of two this summer funded by grants from the District 300 Foundation for Educational Excellence; this one, an $8,000 grant written by former Jacobs High School Assistant Principal Francesca DiMaggio.

“Once we stated learning about the achievement gap and summer learning and how it affects our district, we thought we’d figure out how to solve it here and help raise test scores,” said Laura Saldivar, 17, of Algonquin.

The Healthy Living and Learning Camp, offered by high school volunteers at three elementary schools as a pilot program this summer, focuses on tutoring first- and second-grade students in math and reading. But it also includes time for physical activity, and students are tested both before and after the activity.

That’s based on several pieces of research the students said they had learned at the National Youth Leadership Council last summer in St. Paul, Minn., like research showing that “peer-to-peer education is the best method,” according to Saldivar.

So, the senior at Jacobs High School in Algonquin said, “We thought it would be best for us to be teaching them because they look up to us.”

And, she added, “We read some research that the achievement gap really hits when they hit age 9, so we wanted to reach them before that.”

DiMaggio, now an education specialist in District 300’s reorganized special education program,, said the camp was offered free of charge to students who are from low-income families, need special help with reading or math, or were recommended by teachers.

Those students span “pretty much all the gaps,” she said. And Hampshire High School teacher Karen Bachta, also helping to run the camp, said that includes students with language barriers, low socio-economic status or who just are shy and don’t raise their hands in class.

“We’re hoping to see an improvement in their ISAT scores. It depends what they take from this,” DiMaggio said.

And, she noted, “They don’t have long — only eight days — so we’re not sure if we’ll see a huge jump.”

The first camp, held earlier this month at Westfield Community School in Algonquin, had 23 students.

Camps at Perry Elementary and Hampshire Elementary School started Monday and continue through Thursday. About 10 kids attended the morning camp at Perry early in the week, DiMaggio said, and that was despite the fact Monday’s storms took out the electricity at the school. About 13 came to Hampshire, including Bri Hernandez, 7, who lives in Hampshire and just finished first grade at the school.

“It’s fun because they let us do some fun stuff,” Bri said.

Like “playing in the gym,” said Gilberts Elementary School student Blake Kumor, 7, of Gilberts.

Bri said she thought the tests were fun.

“They’re sort of hard — and easy — but we try our best at it. They’re trying to test us and see what we know,” she said.

And that definitely met one of goals the students and teachers had for the Healthy Living and Learning Camp.

“That’s what we want — to get these kids exposed to summer learning so they love it even more when they come back,” DiMaggio said.

The D300 Foundation also awarded a grant this summer to Westfield Community School teacher Michelle Soland for a six-week program called Summer Brain Stimulus, according to the foundation. The program uses physical exercise, games and computer software to help third-, fourth- and fifth-graders improve their memories and make their brains more receptive to learning.

The nonprofit is committed to enhancing and extending learning opportunities in all District 300 schools through school, community and business partnerships. It has awarded nearly half a million dollars in grants, all funded by private donations and fundraisers, since it was founded in 2002.