Lorain High '11th period' gives kids after-school tutoring to get them back on track

LORAIN — Last school year, Lorain High students did something new: They voluntarily spent an extra hour at school. Lorain Schools' "11th period," an extra block of time at the end of the school day for students to receive tutoring or just complete work before going home, helped get students back on track after two years of upended learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to high school staff. More than 370 students and their families celebrated the end of a four-year journey May 24. But while some kids sailed across that stage, some went by the skin of their teeth, Principal Pat Coleman said. "Some kids sprint across the stage, others get dragged kicking and screaming — I think it's fair to say 11th period was a huge asset for the kicking and screaming crowd," he said. Coleman has since stepped down from his role as principal and the district is actively searching for his replacement. Going into the 2021-22 school year, more kids needed credit recovery — from the class of 2022 down, he said. And for seniors, that program had previously been something done outside of school, while underclassmen completed coursework during the regular school day. There was a lot of effort, Assistant Principal Nancy Lecorchick said, but not a lot of structure. Eleventh period was a chance to let seniors do their credit recovery work on site. Costing the district approximately $150,000 in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, the program got more than a few graduates across the stage last month, Lecorchick said, and has helped underclassmen get back on track to graduate on time. "We wanted to create a system formal enough that we could see who was staying, and informal enough that students could stay for what they needed," she said. Those formalities include Aramark-provided snacks and transportation home for students with a bus pass, a stipend for participating teachers, as well as giving something long done in the school's athletic department a broader name, Coleman said. "Football coaches forever have managed something like study table … that's the type of things coaches have done forever," he said. "It's just a way for our adults to provide an extra structure for kids, keep an eye on them, check in on them." Candidly, Coleman said 11th period was a case of "urgency breeding innovation." While it was modeled after the coaches' "study table," the program wouldn't have happened without the pandemic. Taking cues from football coach Damion Creel and his predecessor, Dave McFarland, to give kids a place to do their work on site — while adding the structure of having several classroom teachers stay afterward to help with homework, or have them make up tests or quizzes — helped get the program off the ground. "Listen, if we have 70 kids from the football team and 30 kids from the volleyball team staying, boom, we automatically have 100 kids and they're telling their friends 'Hey, there's this thing called 11th period and it was really helpful,'" Lecorchick said. "It helped it was their brainchild, but it was also their students who got the help that they needed." One of those 100-plus athletes participating was freshman Aven Kielian, 15. He'd always stayed after school with his dad, Matt Kielian, who is the basketball coach, but once 11th period became available it gave Aven a chance to get help from his teachers during that same time. "I think 11th period is a great opportunity because it gives you more time to get assignments done and get your grades up and to eventually have the opportunity to pass the class. It's really helped for me personally," he said. And from there, it grew. Sometimes, there would be upward of 10 percent of the school's students staying for an extra hour Monday through Thursday, while other times that attendance would dip. But it wasn't necessarily about getting every kid to stay an extra hour each day — it was about reaching those who needed the support most. And in January, the effort hit its stride, Lecorchick said, with the students who really needed credit recovery or extra help finally coming to the table. Freshman Aolani Gonzalez Quinones, 15, saw a marked difference in her grades when she went versus when she didn't, she said. She started attending because she needed to boost her failing grade in Algebra II — and got it up to a B. But when she stopped attending, her grade slipped back until she started going again. Over the summer Lecorchick said she plans to look into the data surrounding the program, comparing kids' GPAs and final class grades with their attendance. But there are some outcomes not measured in that data, too, she said, like whether a student signed up for advanced ceramics next year because they got to throw clay after school, or the entirely new graphic novel elective English teacher Josh Katz created from a core group of kids' and his shared interest. Algebra II and geometry teacher Stephanie Bluso said she'd regularly stayed after to help students even before the formalized period, but 11th period gave her a chance to do tutoring for the ACT and state testing, as well as to help kids stuck on homework or let them make up tests. "Sometimes I've had kids that stay and they just want to hang out and talk," she said. "I'm here for that too." Ninth grade English teacher Stephanie Siefert agreed that the opportunity to build rapport was huge. "I think it's so much more than academics, because it gives you an opportunity to really build that rapport with the kids outside of your 40-something minutes a day in a big group setting — when they come in it's so much more than academics, truly," she said. Coleman admitted that throughout the 2021-22 school year, there was a lot of trial and error. "I think we've established a lot of victories there, so next year allows us to get to that enhancement mode so we're not building it from the ground up anymore," he said. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.