New migrant program helps boost graduation rates

By GABRIEL SALDAÑA

DONNA — The Morning Migrant, a new tutorial program for migrant students at Donna Schools, aims to boost grades and graduation rates via hand-held computer programs and new roles for faculty.

To augment an existing migrant program, DISD has introduced “Study Buddy,” a digital learning resource designed to help students overcome obstacles they may experience in math and reading, district officials said this week.

Study Buddy software is tailored to individual state requirements for learning and complements curriculum at specific grade levels.

“We have 35 Study Buddies,” Migrant Education Program Director Abel Muñoz said. “The purpose of (Study Buddy) is to provide differentiated instruction for our migrant students.

These are (bought with) the monies that are sent to the district through the migrant program. This is one of the big pluses of the program.”

W.A. Todd campus Migrant Strategist Ramiro A. Gonzalez said the program is growing and has recently experienced an increase in its numbers.

“We’re averaging from 16-17 kids a day but close to 100 total,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a program that is working very well. We’ve been excited about the kids who have shown up for the tutorials because they don’t have to come. It’s completely voluntary.”

Although the Donna school district has previously had a migrant tutorial program, 2007 marks the first year the school board has implemented a migrant strategist at each of its high schools and middle schools.

The migrant strategist gives students a representative with whom they can interact on a daily basis and to helps gather more participants for the 7 a.m. tutorial sessions, officials said.

“The main role and responsibility of the migrant strategist is to provide supplemental and educational services to migrant students making a grade lower than 70 and keep them from failing the course at the end of the year,” Muñoz said.

The program’s success will be measured for the first time in the 2007 school year, officials said, and used as a benchmark for the program’s future progress.

“Right now we can’t measure success in percentages and numbers,” Muñoz said. “We’re measuring success in the number of students who are participating and who are motivated.”

Muñoz also said students who participate in the program are scoring higher in core subjects including reading, math, science and history.

Federal Programs Director Rene Reyna said migrant students have traditionally been at a disadvantage because of their yearly schooling schedules. Migrant students typically switch schools at times of the year not concurrent with their classmates.

“Migrant students are our most mobile population,” Reyna said. “They are coming in late in the year and leaving early in the year so the program provides them an opportunity to catch up to the level of the student that doesn’t leave.”

As far as long term goals for the Morning Migrant are concerned, district officials hope for higher graduation rates among the migrant population and hope to see the effects of the program as early as next school year.