As the second semester approaches, the RAMS committee will be ready to put an enhanced system into effect, in which students will stay after school for a chance to improve their grades and homework habits.
Mr. Evan Dagger, who up until this year was an Earth Science and Anatomy and Physiology teacher, is on special assignment in order to devote time to bettering RAMS.
The California Department of Education expects public schools to have a Response to Intervention program to address students who are struggling in school, which is essentially what RAMS is. When a student continues to maintain a D, F, less than a 2.0 GPA or unsatisfactory work habits, he or she receives RAMS every grading period.
“There are three levels to RTI,” Mr. Dagger said. “The first tier is really what all educators do on campus, which is monitor the students and see if they’re doing okay. Tier 2 is what we call the RAMS class. We place students whose grades are slipping into a study hall environment in hopes that they’ll get their work turned in and get their grades back up.”
Instead of replacing the RAMS class, Tier 3 acts as an extension and class that involves students reworking homework afterschool with teacher guidance until the task is complete. A few students already have such attention in order to test it and if the arrangement proves successful, it will be here to stay.
When the program begins, it will most likely be held in either the media or career center. Students would stay as long as the specific assignment takes after their final period. The penalty for not attending a session is Saturday school.
“All teachers and administrators are obligated to do an RTI program by law,” Mr. Dagger said. “But when you take away the laws, there is a better way and a not better way of teaching another human being something. Each student has their own individual skill set.”