“Thanks to Stephen Hightower and other community leaders, we are fortunate to have the Learning is Cool program in Middletown,” said Superintendent Greg Rasmussen. “It has created a great deal of excitement and helped to motivate our students. Just as importantly, it has helped us raise expectations. A combination of increased motivation and high expectations goes a long way to promoting student success.”
Barbara Dundee, of the Marvin Lewis Foundation, said that she wasn’t told of any target numbers that had been established by the Middletown school district, but she was encouraged by the numbers.
“Our criteria are a 3.51 (grade-point average) and above,” Dundee said. “We are not sure how that (1,125 students) compares to first quarter 2011-2012 school year, but it’s about 27 percent of the student body this year.”
Middletown district spokeswoman Gracie Gregory said the district did not have a record of past honor roll totals at the elementary school level, so she wasn’t certain how many students made the first-quarter honor roll last year.
Cincinnati Public Schools, North College Hill Schools, Middletown and the Covington (Ky.) Independent Public Schools participate in the program. Covington schools use the program for grades 1 through 12. The others, including Middletown, just have grades 1 through 8 in the program.
This is the first year that Middletown and Covington schools have participated in the Learning is Cool program.
Those students who achieve “A” honor roll status twice during the school year will qualify for an Academic Achievement celebration at the end of the school year with several members of the Cincinnati Bengals football team at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Last year, 4,566 students out of a possible 24,000 in the Cincinnati Public and North College Hill school districts qualified for the Spring celebration.
Dundee said she’s already seen improvement among the North College Hill and Cincinnati Public districts over last school year.
“North College Hill is in the beginning of its second year in the program and their numbers are up over 100 percent. By that I mean, first quarter to first quarter. And Cincinnati Public Schools numbers are up significantly too,” she said. “So, all in all, we are very happy with the student achievement for this first quarter.”
Each student who makes the honor roll twice this school year will receive three tickets for the zoo. While the tickets are good for the entire day, the celebration begins at 6 p.m. when the zoo closes to the public. Bengals players and coaches will be in the Wings of Wonder amphitheater, and each child will go on stage to receive a medal of achievement from the players.
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