Academic Support Center (ASC)
The Academic Support Center at Bishop O’Dowd High School is comprised of a network of distinct programs, differentiated by their purpose, intended constituencies, and daily operations. These programs augment help available from teachers during MP and after school. All support services are described below.
As a school, Bishop O’Dowd offers a layered system of resources and supports, carefully designed and personalized to address the various needs all students encounter at some point during their tenure as Dragons. Common among all parts of the Academic Support Programs at O’Dowd is our belief that students will succeed when they are supported by a collaborative scaffold that includes structured communication between the home and school and a concerted case management approach involving all stakeholders at school: from teachers, to coaches, to academic mentors, and counselors.
Support Services Offered
Academic Support Contacts
Tutoring On Demand (Peer tutoring)
Tutoring on Demand provides drop-in academic support for all O’Dowd students free of charge. There is no sign-up or registration required; students simply come to the Academic Support Center in the library during scheduled tutoring hours and avail themselves of the adult or peer tutors on staff for help with a specific task or assignment. Review, test-preparation and time management help are other typical activities for which Tutoring on Demand can provide significant support.
Catch-Up Support Planning (CUSP)
The CUSP program is designed to provide academic support for students who have missed, or will miss, a significant amount of school due to a planned or unplanned absence. Three or more consecutive absences from any one class is considered significant and eligible for support. The program is designed to provide either pro-active or reactive support depending on the circumstances of the absence.
Dragon Success
Dragon Success is Bishop O’Dowd’s study skills and mentoring program. This program takes a ‘bigger picture’ approach rather than offer students support with specific assignments or teach them finite content area skills, which happens in the other components of the Academic Support Program. Students work closely with an adult mentor to learn generalized meta-skills, specifically, how to utilize increased self-awareness and self-coaching in order to effectively execute study skills that are appropriate for the task at hand.
Final Exam Preparation Workshop
Bishop O’Dowd’s Finals Prep Workshop is a two day workshop and participation is limited to 9th and 10th grade students only.
Day One of the workshop begins with a General Session designed to address a logical and realistic approach to finals and reviews general test-taking strategies. Each student will prepare a study plan for the two weeks leading up to finals.
On Day Two of the workshop, students will attend subject-specific “break-out” sessions designed to teach students how to study for specific types of tests (e.g. how to study for a math final, a Spanish final, a history final, a science final). Students may choose to attend up to four sessions depending on their needs.
Please note: Attendance in the General Session, Day One, is a pre-requisite for attending the subject-specific sessions on Day Two.
Intensive Study Program (ISP)
The Intensive Study Program is for students on academic probation. Students and parents identify the impediments to academic progress and then create a plan for improving student academic performance. ISP Students will have preferred access to Tutoring on Demand and to SMART Sessions which are subject-specific, teacher-led study groups that meet before or after school and require a one quarter commitment.
The primary focus of ISP is to provide students support in identifying and resolving roadblocks to academic success leading to a “C” average or better.
Student Success Teams (SSTs)
SSTs are designed to leverage all on-site resources in support of at-risk students. The model employs a systematic and collaborative problem-solving approach by combining the efforts, knowledge, and expertise of all members of the Student Success Team under the leadership of an SST Coordinator.
CORE
The mission of O’Dowd’s CORE program is to utilize the freshmen year and summer sessions to level the playing field for students who come to us with good academic potential, but insufficient academic preparation. Students in the program receive a powerful regimen of supports: targeted summer work before starting here, a designated counselor with weekly check-ins, a designated Dragon Success mentor who provides weekly small group study skills sessions, and a modified schedule with both English and Algebra Study periods and PE or Study Hall scheduled for first semester, and Integrated Science for second semester. One of the most powerful tools in the CORE program design is the monthly CORE team meeting. In this meeting, all teachers who have CORE students in their classes, share their experiences with the cohort and discuss best practices for individual students. With this approach, the CORE team is able to intervene meaningfully for many of these students and allow them to maximize their potential.
English Language Learners (ELL)
O’Dowd addresses the needs of English language learners in a number of ways. Our growing contingent of international students generally starts their career at O’Dowd in the English Transitions class, which offers grade level literature and a special focus on developing language proficiency, including grammar and vocabulary. This class, taught by a certified Reading Specialist, is also open to our local students who are lucky enough to have a heritage language other than English and are still building English fluency. Additionally, the Writing Center, which offers students adult mentoring with homework writing assignments, is open at least once a week at lunch and after school.
Learning Disability/Attention Deficit (LD/ADHD) Program
The LD/ADHD Program at Bishop O’Dowd is designed to support students with documented learning disabilities and attentional deficits through a team-based approach that is case-managed by a credentialed Learning Specialist. Students with these cognitive profiles tend to have tangible disadvantages within the pedagogical structures of a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum. At O’Dowd, they are supported through disability-specific educational counseling and an educational care plan that incorporates focused skill intervention and maintenance through appropriate elements of the academic support program. Most importantly, the Learning Specialist works with students, their caregivers, and their teachers to devise a system of targeted accommodations to their educational environment that allows students to maximize their academic potential.
In order to maintain standards of fairness, equality, and comparability with other college-preparatory high schools across the country, students have to comply with the documentation requirements stipulated by the College Board to be considered eligible for O’Dowd’s LD/ADHD program. O’Dowd requires a full psycho-educational evaluation for documentation of a Learning Disability and a full ADHD evaluation for documentation of ADHD.
Project Eye-to-Eye
Project Eye-to-Eye is a national coalition of grassroots mentoring programs for students with LD/ADHD. Eye-to-Eye was started in 1998 by a group of Brown University students with Learning Disabilities, who began informally mentoring students at a local elementary school who had similar disability profiles. Project Eye-to-Eye’s mission is to empower the LD/ADHD community by challenging the pathological social and institutional ideology that surrounds LD/ADHD. Project Eye-to-Eye’s method is to bring LD/ADHD college and high school students into the lives of LD/ADHD middle and elementary school students as role models, tutors, and mentors. Eye-to-Eye uses art therapy as a powerful vehicle for building self-advocacy, developing meta-cognitive skills, and promoting proactive learning strategies and academic accommodations.
Support for Student Athletes
O'Dowd's student-athletes have access to a designated organization-and-time management mentor to help with the dual task of adhering to a demanding practice schedule and meeting the academic rigor of our college-preparatory curriculum.
Student-athletes meet once a week with their designated mentor, who supports them through one-on-one work with BlackBoard and PowerSchool, models functional organizational techniques, and demonstrates note-taking strategies and other crucial study skills. Based on their individual needs, the students will also be referred to additional academic support resources that are available on campus, such as the Tutoring Center in the library and teacher-led MP's for content area support. Coaches will expect that their players avail themselves of this opportunity and will track grades accordingly.