Spring training planned for Dade juniors

By Mike Chambers

Correspondent

Spring training is about to get under way for possibly more than half of Dade County High School’s upcoming senior class, but these Wolverines will be training on the field of the mind, not the body.

Dade County educators are contacting juniors and their parents to offer extra help in passing the state high school graduation test. The number of students participating could “be more than 100,” according to Dade County Schools Superintendent Patty Priest.

Principal Josh Ingle said the school has identified students, particularly juniors, who are taking the Georgia High School graduation test and are “in the middle,” he said. To be sure they pass the graduation test in spring, “some of them have even asked for help,” he said.

Participating students will stay after class for 11 Wednesdays to pump up with “extra academic services,” Ingle said. Drills and instruction will cover everything from the nuts and bolts of math, science, social studies and English – the test’s four content areas – to “issues with test anxiety, a lot of test-taking strategies,” he said.

Priest said state grant money makes the program possible.

“We have money for transportation to provide training. I think it’s an opportunity we haven’t had in the past,” Priest said.

“Hopefully, students will take advantage of it,” she said. “Everything you do today you have to have a high school diploma.”

Priest said snacks will be offered students taking on the extra work.

“Kids are starving by the end of the day,” she said. “A snack [will] tide them over until they get home.”

The extra instruction could determine the final score in the game of learning, she said.

“Some kids are just right on the edge of gaining the knowledge they need for their graduation test and, if we can help them get over that edge, that’s our goal.”

Mike Chambers is based in Rising Fawn. E-mail him at chambers@tvn.net.