Crescent Core Aids Middleschoolers

A program started by the Cheney School District this year offers middle-school students, who feel like they don’t fit in, a choice in their education.

Called Crescent Core, the program is an alternative middle school where the students - not the teachers - drive the direction of their curriculum, said program director Shannon Espinoza. She and assistant Suzanne Calbick teach the 17 students currently enrolled, out of about 900 middle school students in the district.

“There are more kids who could benefit from this program,” Espinoza said. “We have limited space, however.”

The students meet in a 30-by-30 foot classroom in the district’s administration office, the Fisher Building. The classes are there, she said, in order to give the students some distance from the middle school.

All the students volunteered for the program, but also were recommended, Espinoza said. They were identified by teachers and counselors as disengaged from school, disruptive in class or lost in the system. Some had even dropped out. She said that almost all of her students are from single-parent homes, and all but one qualify for free or reduced-cost meals at school, an indicator of poverty.

Unlike the district’s alternative high school, where students focus on one class at a time and only check in once a week, the middle school runs mostly like a regular classroom. The students study several subjects at a time and attend a regular school day. They even report to the middle school, where they are bused to and from the Fisher Building.

Crescent Core differs dramatically, however, in the way subjects are taught and the level of attention students receive.

The students pick topics they are interested in and Espinoza then tries to teach the required subject matter through that topic. The concept is called service learning.

For example, when students expressed an interest in animals, she took them to work at the Humane Society for a day. She also taught them about specific animals. Likewise, if students expressed an interest in police officers, Espinosa would take them on a tour of the police station and ask them to read and write a report on police. A student interested in the old West might by asked to study the history of gunfighters.

That style of teaching takes considerably greater effort than traditional methods, Espinoza said.

“This isn’t an easy job, let me tell you,” she said. “This takes up a lot of my time, but I don’t have children. These are my children.” The program also provides social services to the kids, she said.

“If I want these kid to be successful, I have to look at them as whole persons and not just as students,” she said.

Students might need a ride to school, toiletries or even counseling. Espinoza said it’s her job to get those for them.

“There’s no way they’ll meet the state standards if they don’t have clothes or toothpaste,” she said.

She calls it “wrap around” services. She works with local social service agencies to get the students whatever help they need so they can be successful at school.

“It costs a lot more money to get them back in the system in the future then to keep them in now,” she said. She has 14 Eastern Washington University education students volunteering weekly to tutor students in reading. In the future, she hopes to secure a social work intern to work in her class as well, she said.

The program may not have a future, however.

The program is only funded by a state grant for one year, and officials said they are looking for another $90,000 grant that will keep it afloat next year.

“We absolutely need another grant,” she said.