Prometheus Educational Services

Service Description

Service Description: The Latimer Education Program provides remedial reading and/or math instruction free of charge to students in grades 1-5 in the Schenectady City School District who are one or more years below grade level in these areas. Special effort is made to enroll students from the Hamilton Hill area, since many youth from Hamilton Hill score significantly below grade level on standardized reading and math tests.

The Latimer Education Building is located at 215 Duane St., Schenectady. The building contains 3 classrooms, a computer room, and the director's office. The building is presently being reconstructed with a $100,000 grant received by Carver from the UPS foundation. Materials used for instruction include the Open Court Headway phonics-based reading series (having been purchased with grants from WGY radio); other text or trade books; worksheets; educational games; 18 computers; and other instructional and audio-visual materials.

Remediation is provided by two state certified teachers (aided by the administrative director/supervising teacher). Remediation involves individual and small group instruction as well as the use of 4-6 computers at each of the 3 city-wide sites. The Academic Session begins in the middle of October and runs to the end of May. Classes are conducted on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 4:00 - 6:00pm. on days when Schenectady City Schools meet for a full day session. The Summer Session begins in July and runs for 6 weeks. Classes are conducted Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for one hour, each teacher holding two classes per day. Students must attend classes every day (except for illness or family scheduling conflicts, for which work will be given to be made up within two weeks). Many Summer students are also involved in the Carver Summer Day Camp.

This past School Year, 112 students were enrolled in Latimer at one time or another. Generally, students who enter in the Fall remain until the termination of classes in May. Students who are excessively absent are dismissed to make room for other students. Presently, a waiting list of 250+ students exists which exceeds our capacity by more than 200%.

Students are actively recruited from both the public and parochial schools. Referrals are made by teachers, guidance counselors, administrators, and parents. Once a student has been accepted into the program, comprehensive reading and/or math evaluations are sent to the classroom teacher for completion. These evaluations pinpoint skill areas that are in need of remediation. An individualized family educational plan is then devised by the Latimer teacher which will focus on the particular area(s) in need of remediation. Thus Latimer teachers are able to avoid wasting valuable time teaching skills already mastered and can concentrate specifically on the area(s) of weakness.

Progress reports are sent to parents twice during the School Year and once during the Summer Session. These reports include: attendance, Gates-MacGinitie nationally normed reading diagnostic pre- and post- test test scores, specific skills worked on to date, assessments, attendance evaluations, and recommendations for further progress. A copy of these reports is sent to each student's classroom teacher.

By working cooperatively with parents and schools, Latimer has gained recognition and respect as an effective educational program.