Summer Program That Helps High-Risk Centennial Students Returning

WARMINSTER, PA —High-risk students in the Centennial School District will now have a new communication assistant to help them.

The school district has announced that the Panther Cubs Summer All-Stars Program is returning for a third summer. And with that will also come Cubby, the new communication assistant. See video of Cubby below.

The district launched the program two years ago with the goal of closing the achievement gap for high-risk students, school officials said.

The four-week program is offered free to students who qualify based on specific criteria.

For three hours each day, teachers focus on the skills most important to lifelong academic success: reading, writing, and mathematics.

Part of each day is devoted to group work and learning stations.

Teachers meet with small groups to differentiate and individualize the learning experience. When students are not working with the teacher in their small group, they rotate among a variety of learning stations that reinforce the daily lessons, promote independence, and encourage problem-solving.

Students will be placed based on the end-of-year data/assessed on the first few days of the program to determine summer placement.

In October, the school board was provided an update showing the results of last year's cohort of students which showed outstanding improvement in student performance from the pre-assessment to post-assessment.

The Panther Cubs Summer All-Starts program last year had more than 20 percent average academic growth for our student participants.

The program is becoming an important part of CSD's efforts to combat "unfinished learning" and provide our elementary students with a wonderful half day of extended learning to strengthen their skills before next school year, school officials said.