Detention Designed as Homework Lesson
At Hillside Middle School, students who don’t do their homework can be assigned a kind of detention called Guided Study.
Guided Study is a 20-minute after-school homework session supervised by teachers who volunteer their time.
The session is assigned the same day an assignment is not turned in. Students who do not attend are assigned even longer sessions--up to two hours. Also, letters might be sent home to their parents, and their participation in school activities may be cut back.
Parent volunteer Eric Cohen, who runs the after-school program, said the goal is to show students there are consequences for not doing homework and to alert parents to possible problems before their children move on to high school.
Guided Study is one of many programs the district is developing to help students at risk for being held back under new state-mandated guidelines against social promotion, said Michael Wray, director of secondary education for the Simi Valley Unified School District.
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