This week, Blaine Alvarez of the CSX Team serving at the Dulles School of Excellence shares a story of his team going into overdrive to help get students prepared to excel on the Ilinois Standards Achievement Text.
Starting on March 6th and continuing through March 16th, students at Dulles School of Excellence will be taking the ISAT (Illinois Standards Achievement Test) and throughout this process the CSX Team serving at Dulles will be there to support their students with a little extra help in school and after school. Students in third through eighth grade will take exams in reading and math; 4th and 7th grade students additionally will take an additional science exam. The CSX team will be focusing mainly on giving the students the tools they need to succeed, with a variety of study and relaxation tips.
The CSX team will have its after school Homework Help morph into ISAT prep over the next six weeks. Each day Academic Coordinator Ramya Kumaran will be teaching the kids the CSX Study Tip (based off of the popular City Year culture piece the CSX Safety Tip) of the week, which will range from reading the entire question to eliminating wrong answers. Says Ramya about the test taking tips “I think these tips will really help out the students who aren’t as strong as test taking, and reassure the ones who are strong.” Because the entire test taking event can be stressful, the rest of the team will provide the students with several relaxation tips as well to make sure the students are calm when they take the test.
With such smart students and City Year’s help, the Dulles Tigers are sure to roar at this year’s ISAT!
Blaine Alvarez is a first-year corps member serving on the CSX Team at the Dulles School of Excellence. Blaine is orginally from Aloha, Oregon and is a graduate of the University of Oregon.
