Club's program boosts TAKS scores
Passing Rates Rise
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

Not only does the El Campo Boys & Girls Club provide a safe, nurturing environment for youngsters, it appears it helps them with their education.

"This discovery came as a result of an effort to run a program called "Learning Today" … to help club members perform better in school and on standardized tests," said club volunteer J.J. Croix. "What we found is that the kids attending the club and the Power Hour program are already taking care of business at a higher rate than their peers."

The Power Hour program provides an hour of study, homework help or tutoring after school each weekday for children from kindergarten through 8th grade, who are monitored and assisted by volunteers and older students.

What Croix found was 92 percent of the 62 students up to 6th grade who regularly attended the club's Power Hour program last year passed every one of their state-mandated TAKS assessment tests.

Averaging the scores of the 10 tests administered to El Campo students up to grade 6 shows an 82.6 percent passing rate, according to statistics provided by Carolyn Gordon, ECISD assistant superintendent for curriculum. El Campo students did best in 3rd grade reading, with a 95 percent passing rate, while the worst such rate was 58 percent for the 5th grade science test.

"Considering the fact that economically disadvantaged students pass standardized tests at a much lower rate than average, these results are something that the club can be very proud of," Croix said. "The key now is to get more kids to attend the program so that it will have a positive and measurable impact on scores for El Campo ISD."

Michael Perry, B&G Club chief professional officer, said Power Hour, in one form or another, has been ongoing for about three years, and is available to students through 8th grade.

He echoed Croix's desire that more students take advantage of Power Hour.

"The numbers aren't up to where they need to be right now," Perry said, "but they're slowly coming back. We have a new program director, Laura Rodriguez, and that's helping a lot."

To learn more about the offerings of the Boys & Girls Club of El Campo, call 543- 8320.