Working Overtime : The Day Isn’t Long Enough for ‘Before-and-After’ Program Participants at Rio Vista

ANAHEIM — Every morning nearly 100 children voluntarily go to class early at Rio Vista Elementary School. And every afternoon, another 50 pupils stay after class.

Given the option, pupils at Rio Vista have proved that they’ll get up early and stay late as long as they can keep on learning.

Last year, 723 children took part in Rio Vista’s “before-and-after” school project.

“This year we expect even more,” says Robert McLeish, the teacher in charge of the federally funded program. “You have to feel good about it when, in September, a child will come up to you and say, ‘When are we going to start the before-and-after program?’ ”

The program, in its fourth year, offers computerized writing and math instruction as well as individual tutoring. Classes are designed primarily for disadvantaged children who may come from lower-income families or who may have lower academic scores. However, if space is available, any of Rio Vista’s 1,170 pupils may sign up for the program--and many do.

The added classes and individual instruction are especially important at Rio Vista, according to principal John McClanahan, because the school is so large and has such a high turnover rate among its pupils.

“We are a big school, and our turnover rate is over 50% in a year. We have a constant change of enrollment because people move into and out of our area all the time,” McClanahan said.

That area includes parts of Anaheim, Placentia and Yorba Linda. Although the school is in Anaheim, it is part of the Placentia Unified School District and is one of the two largest elementary schools in the district.

Many youngsters at Rio Vista have limited English skills, but McClanahan says the biggest obstacle for many is not language but poverty. About 60% of Rio Vista’s children come from low-income families and qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

“There are misconceptions in our society about our poor,” he says. “They are struggling to get a toehold in the economy, and they work terribly long, hard hours. We forget that poor people don’t have transportation. Some have no phone at home, let alone an answering machine. So communication (with parents) is difficult. That is not to say they don’t care. They do.”

At Rio Vista, letters in both English and Spanish are sent to parents, informing them of the free program and inviting them to sign up their children. “We just sent out about 350 letters,” McLeish says, “and got about 150 responses.”

Children in the before-and-after program come to school at 8 a.m., an hour before regular classes.

Some receive tutoring in small groups of no more than seven. Some attend a math lab where they sit at computers and work on their own, each according to ability. Still others are enrolled in the writing lab, where they work on language skills. In the afternoon, another group of children attend the same sessions and stay in school until about 4:30 p.m.

The program is staffed by volunteer teachers who receive an hourly wage.

During a recent session, about 20 children from the fourth, fifth and sixth grades sat in the writing lab composing poems, while across the courtyard a group of kindergartners were receiving individual tutoring. In the math lab, 45 students at computers worked on problems ranging from simple subtraction to complicated multiplication.

“When they begin work in the math lab, they receive a basic skills test and then start at that level,” McLeish says. “Then we watch them and, according to their skills, move them to higher levels. For example, last year we had a boy from Korea, and he learned English so fast that he asked if he could take the test again--and he went up five levels. So everything is very individualized.”

The program runs all year in six-week sessions, attracting different children each session. “This year we expect about 750 kids,” McLeish says.

Children in the program can range from those who enter the school illiterate in both Spanish and English to those who are performing above their grade level.

Although the program is designed to help “disadvantaged” or “at-risk” children who may be having difficulty academically, McLeish points out that the emphasis is not just on playing catch up.

Children can work beyond their abilities, too, he says. “Our math software goes all the way up to the eighth-grade level,” he says.

Proof that the program is working can be found in the pupils’ test scores, which are steadily improving, according to principal McClanahan. “What we are seeing is that if we can have the kids, we can improve them. Our scores prove that.”

McClanahan says that the goals are the same for all the children at Rio Vista--whether those children come from middle-class or disadvantaged homes.

“We are in a race. We must get the child to a certain level of skills educationally so he will get to junior high school and stay. If we get to them early and have them stay (in school), then it is a race we can win. If it is a victory, it will be a victory that will happen on the high school level.”

McClanahan and McLeish say other schools would benefit from extended programs such as the one at Rio Vista.

“The program has a lot going for it in terms of educational benefit, cost and service to the local community,” McClanahan says. “We feel that more and more programs should be delivered before and after school. And we also feel that we should have programs for parents.”

Such parent programs could be held at the school, according to McClanahan, who says public school buildings are underused.

“With our before-and-after program, our school is used a lot right now,” he says, “but we could be doing a whole lot more. Every school should be an educational learning center for its community.”