D211 expands summer program to sophomores
Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 will expand a freshman summer program to include incoming sophomores in hopes of turning more good students into great ones.
Project Excel began in 2006, and 313 freshmen have since gone through it. It targets students who are doing well, with the hope that extra summer instruction pushes them to the next academic level.
The school board on Thursday voted to launch a sophomore version of the program this summer.
"Some college-bound students doing well could perhaps be accelerated and go onto (Advanced Placement) classes," District 211 Superintendent Nancy Robb said.
The three-week pilot program for 30 students be held at Hoffman Estates High School, where the freshman program was launched. Conant and Schaumburg students are also eligible. Robb said the program will focus on reading skills, as some students struggle with junior-level English classes.
She also said district officials hope to evaluate the program in a year and eventually offer Project Excel for sophomores at all five schools. Students will be invited into the program and be charged a $30 registration fee, with the transportation fee waived. Officials estimate the cost of the pilot program at $8,000.
They point to the success of freshmen who've gone through it. The grade-point average of the 85 students from the class of 2010 who enrolled in the program is 3.4 this year, with 44 enrolled in AP literature and seven in accelerated mathematics.
The 107 members of the class of 2011 who took the program have a 3.2 GPA this school year, with 48 in AP literature and 30 in accelerated mathematics classes.
School board members heard the story of David Perez, a Hoffman Estates High senior who went through Project Excel. He was chosen as a member of the Daily Herald's Leadership Team.
"He is an example of why we do the work that we do," board President Robert LeFevre said. "This young man moved his scores and his education as far as you could move them during his four years in high school."