For 10 years, the Horizons program at Savannah Country Day School has provided private school experiences to students from high-poverty public schools.
Now the middle-grades courses are being taught at Bethesda Academy.
“The kids work with animals here on the farm, they’re learning archery and they can swim here on campus,” said Horizons Executive Director Christy Edwards.
During the summer, the Horizons program uses private school resources that would otherwise be unused to provide low-income students with academic and cultural enrichment. Organizers of the privately funded program hope to partner with other private schools to provide an academic boost to students throughout Chatham County.
The program benefits the private schools by providing mentoring and community service opportunities for their students. The public schools benefit because students receive instruction that prepares them for the coming school year.
Currently, the program enrolls 130 students primarily from public schools on the southside of Savannah. Those schools receive federal Title I funding because they enroll a large percentage of low-income students. Each year the schools recommend students for participation in Horizons. The select group of students takes academic assessments and receives academic instruction based on their greatest area of academic need.
“On average, our students make gains of three to four months in reading and math over the summer,” Edwards said. “We really see ourselves as preparing the kids to be on grade level.”
Sixth-grader Alexis Stokes has been in the Horizons program since she was in the third grade. This summer at Bethesda she has gotten to catch and dissect crabs, tend to farm animals and brush up on her math and English.
“It’s fun,” she said, “and we do math and stuff over the summer instead of just sitting down and watching TV so I learn more than other students.”