This year at BCHS students noticed an addition to their schedule.  For most students this wasn’t a surprise.  For others, it was unexpected.  Bourbon County High School introduced Reading and Math Intervention classes for students who are performing below benchmark. When asked if they feel like the classes are beneficial, teachers and students had conflicting emotions.   Math teacher, Betty Watson, said “ Yes and no. If kids would use them appropriately it would benefit them but most of them don’t use them for what they were intended for.” Ms. Katherine Elkins teaches both reading and math intervention classes and expressed a similar opinion.  She stated that “if the students take the content seriously, yes it will help them in the long run.  The challenge is a lot of times students don’t understand the need for it at this point in their life and so convincing them that it will help you in a few years from now is the struggle.”

Some students think they are not needed. Freshman, Kamren Smoot, said “ No, it’s a waste of my time” but when asked if the classes have helped Kamren also said “”Yeah, lil bit.  I struggle in them sometimes because some of the programs that we be[sic] doing, it don’t be making no sense and the videos, they don’t be doing stuff right sometimes.”  Other students have had positive opinions about the classes.  Junior, Lucas Rodriguez (LUKE7TEEN), said “ Yeah I do (think they are helpful), they help me remember what I learned last year and help with what I’m currently learning in my classes now so they’re really useful but I don’t really like the program we’re transferring into”.   The program students will be using for the remainder of the year is Edmentum.  Intervention work will be completed online and requires that students complete lessons and activities before testing to see if they have mastered the topic.  Students will spend a minimum of three days a week working through the program and the remaining two days will be used to work on specific learning issues or for extra practice.   This too will take some time to adjust to for students.

It’s difficult to say if the new Intervention classes will completely reduce the reading and math issue for BCHS students and this is the first year BCHS has decided to add these classes.  The only guarantee we have is that without them students will continue to struggle so Bourbon County is doing everything they can to help them now.  At the end of the day, it is certain that extra practice will help students succeed in the long run.