The PRIDE time program Return To Academics (RTA), designed to help students who are failing classes improve their grades to a passing level, is being changed in attempts to have a larger impact on students’ performances.

  RTA has been around since the 2009-2010 school year and has often been criticized by students and teachers as an ineffective way to raise students’ grades. The criticisms were not ignored, however, as our administration and counselors worked together with teachers to create a better designed program.

  During the last PRIDE shuffle of the first semester, RTA was slightly changed from students who are failing going to designated RTA teachers to the students going to teachers who teach the subjects in which the students are struggling.

  Mr. Bridgeman gave some insight into the reasoning behind the change.

  “We’re going to send [the students] with the teacher of the class they’re failing. We’re going to have them work with [the students] individually during that time. We’re trying to do it on more of a personal level because in RTA, sometimes, it gets lost in translation as to what can be made up and what can’t. So, Mr. Smith wanted to try it and see if it’s effective for kids to get the extra help,” Bridgeman said.

  RTA had originally been set up with a select number of teachers having a PRIDE class full of students who are failing classes. Most of the time, these classes were a silent study hall, which provided little to no help for the students with their assignments. Naturally, many students saw no improvement in their grades.

  Bridgeman expressed his support for the new RTA style, “at the end of first semester, we put the kids with the teachers of the class in which they were having some trouble. It wasn’t exactly like it is now, but we saw that students really brought grades up dramatically,” Bridgman said.