Last summer wasn't supposed to be a cruel season for the third graders at Children's Village Academy in tiny, coastal Kinston, N.C. Their 125-student charter school, where 85 percent of pupils are eligible for free or discounted school lunches, makes sure that all its high-risk students are in classes with only 15 to 20 kids. And parents had been invited to campus for quarterly info sessions on important end-of-grade tests that third graders needed to pass to jump to the next grade. But despite all that, five students didn't get the minimum score on North Carolina's reading test, and they appeared to be destined for a do-over year. "It was heartbreaking," says Cynthia Williams, a curriculum and testing coordinator for the school. "Nothing is more painful than watching students repeat grades."
But teachers at Children's Village had some unique gadgets in their tool kit, and they were determined to see their students pass the test on the third and final try allowed by the state. The quintet came in Monday through Friday for intensive summer school courses-capping each day with a 45-minute session on WebAchiever, a computer program designed to help students meet state reading standards.
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