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Academic Resource Center (ARC)

Students struggling academically in their classes at Edgewater High School have an important resource available to them. The Academic Resource Center (ARC) was created in 2004 to help students reach their academic potential during their time at Edgewater. Mrs. Maggie Nampon, Academic Dean at Edgewater, oversees the ARC. The mission of the ARC is threefold; first, to help individual students improve their study habits and success in academic classes, second, to help Advanced Placement (AP) students prepare for their AP exams next Spring, and third, to identify and help succeed those students taking the FCAT this year who barely passed the FCAT Reading Test last year. The ARC is a classroom at Edgewater, complete with computers, circle tables, and a full complement of classroom supplies.

One way the ARC is helping students this year is through “academic referrals.” Students are getting academic referrals to the ARC from teachers in classes in which they are struggling academically. Mrs. Nampon works with these students on an individual basis to help them develop study skills, or secure tutoring, or other needs these students have in order to perform better in class. Also new this year is the AP support program. Through the ARC, students enrolled in AP classes will be receiving support developing reading comprehension, time management skills, and other areas needed by students in order to help them pass AP exams and receive college credit. The number of students taking AP classes at Edgewater doubled this year, up to 650 students currently enrolled. Many of these students have not taken AP classes previously, and they are unfamiliar with the amount of work involved in AP courses. Several students at Edgewater are taking multiple AP classes this year for the first time, creating an even greater need for this service through the ARC. In order to help AP students prepare for the exams, after-school study sessions began in the ARC on September 19. Different subject areas will use the ARC on different days. For example, AP American Government students will have their study sessions on Thursdays. AP students can count on their peers, Mrs. Nampon, and other teachers to help them prepare for both AP exams and college-level academics during these study sessions.

The ARC has already proven instrumental to Edgewater’s success. “Bubble students” receive targeted remediation through the ARC, based on their areas of greatest need. Some students work on comparison and contrast exercises, other students on developing their research skills, etc. Students in this group, both last year and this year, visit the ARC on a weekly basis. The “bubble students” identified and worked with in the ARC last year as students at-risk of not passing the FCAT exhibited strong learning gains in their FCAT scores in 2005, over their scores in 2004. This improvement helped Edgewater move from a D grade in 2004 to only three points shy of a B grade this year.

"With the increase in the number of students talking AP courses, students are realizing they may have chosen classes that they really weren't perpared for," says Nampon. "The ARC is providing them with a support network for those basic skills that they may not have been proficient in before they decided to take part in a college-level class."

For more information, please contact Mrs. Nampon namponm@ocps.net.