Intensive care for pupils catches on locally

Many Cape Girardeau County schools have adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward zeros.

The program is called ICU, like the acronym for intensive care unit at hospitals. The idea is not to let apathetic students off the hook when it comes to finishing their work. The program is based on the book "The Power of ICU," by Danny Hill, a Lebanon, Tenn., educator. Hill travels to schools nationwide talking about the program.

"Basically, it's just a mindset just like anybody that goes to the hospital. If they're in intensive care, their health is in need of intensive care. At school, it's similar; their learning is in jeopardy if they don't do the practice, or don't do the work," said Cory Crosnoe, principal of R.O. Hawkins Junior High School in Jackson.

R.O. Hawkins junior high began putting ICU in place about three years ago and has seen an increase in Missouri Assessment Program test scores and grades, Crosnoe said. The program also is at various stages of implementation at Jackson Middle School and Jackson High School, said Meredith Pobst, director of the Jackson R-2 Foundation and communications for the district.

Hill said the program is a reorganization for schools, and there is little cost to it. He said the database for keeping track of students who don't do their work is $1,200 for the first year and $699 each year for renewal, with upgrades included.

Justin Lieser, Intensive Care Unit lifeguard at Cape Central Middle School, helps sixth grade student, Autumn Ourth with her Math work, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. (Laura Simon)

Hill also charges to speak at schools, but it is a negotiated fee he declined to disclose.

Crosnoe said he has been in "very close contact" with the authors of "The Power of ICU." When a student is in ICU in school, it means they need "intensive care" for their learning.

"We have working lunches where if students don't get the work, we have our lifeguard helping the children who may not have had their work done," Crosnoe said.

When there is an assembly, those on the ICU list will be with teachers getting individual help, he said.

"We really build in a lot of safety nets, I guess you would say, for their learning. We have tutoring before school, after school, tutoring during advisory hours, working lunches, and we even have Saturday sessions once a month," Crosnoe said.

"The big thing is we want to catch them up. For some, it takes more practice than others. That's the big thing. We've just had some outstanding results with this. Last year second semester, we actually had below 1 percent of our grades were F's," he said.

The junior high has about 800 students. Before ICU, Crosnoe said, the school went by the philosophy that students understood the work and did it, or they didn't.

"Now we make sure they get it and make sure they practice, and we give them so many resources in order to be successful," Crosnoe said. "You've really got to put a lot of effort into failing here because we're going to bug the heck out of you and give you plenty of resources."

Making the grade

In first semester of the 2012-2013 school year, the junior high had a total of 43 F's of 4,735 grades. Every student gets six to seven grades. If students take a full load, they get seven grades; six are given if the student takes a study hall.

"Over 55 percent of those grades were A's and almost 30 percent of those were B's," Crosnoe said. "We do a comparison from year to year. We started this three years ago. We have a graph that shows how our A's continually go up and our F's have gone down."

Crosnoe said "we still experiment around" with ways to reach students, and it's a lot more work for teachers to reach certain children, so "we do a lot of reassessing and retesting." He added that ICU is not just for students who are failing; it also helps youngsters who are normally B and C students.

"If the child doesn't do very well, they have to do extra practice, or work, and demonstrate to that teacher that they'll do what it takes to take that reassessment," Crosnoe said.

Teachers and two students interviewed by the Southeast Missourian have embraced the change -- they say it's been positive for everyone. Eighth-grade language arts teacher Autumn Stevens said ICU is a good system that ensures students are doing their work and "nothing slips through the cracks."

Ashley Raney, a ninth-grade language arts teacher, said teachers will not accept any grade under the 70 percent mark.

Eighth-grader Ean Buffington, 14, said ICU is "great because everyone has to do their work" and you get automatic detention if it isn't done.

Fifteen-year-old eighth-grader Nick LaRose said he was on the ICU list once because he was absent for a couple of days. He said he would have completed his assignments anyway, but it was extra motivation.

He and Buffington said ICU contains features such as guided study days where students get a blue pass to go to any teacher for help, and blitz days, where students who have done their assignments can play basketball, for example, while other students get the help they need.

Cory Crosnoe's brother, Rex Crosnoe, is principal at Central Middle School in Cape Girardeau, which started using ICU about two months ago. The school, which has about 600 students, is the only one in the district using ICU and it remains in the early phases.

Central Middle School assistant principal Rae Anne Alpers said the initiative started slowly with the leadership, then the faculty getting interested. "It really hits on student apathy," Alpers said.

Crosnoe said teachers and administrators wanted something to help improve student performance. He said he and Alpers got some background on ICU, did a book study, took the idea to the school's leadership team and talked to administrators at other schools that had used it.

"Really, where we got the idea is talking to my brother [Cory]," Rex Crosnoe said.

Students know they can go to any adult in the school who can provide, or get them extra help. "Really, it just makes the children realize that everyone is here for them, to help them realize their objectives," Rex Crosnoe said.

Alpers noted ICU is not punitive. "It's all about the children learning about concepts they need to learn to move on to the next grade," she said.

The school also is implementing a database that will alert parents that their student needs extra time and practice, Alpers said.

Rex Crosnoe said parents have been supportive.

"Home and school have to work so well together, because if we're not working together, it's not going to succeed," Rex Crosnoe said.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

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