BEATRICE – As schools around the nation try to make up ground in student learning lost as a result of the Covid pandemic, a middle school in southeast Nebraska is trying a focused approach.


Beatrice Middle School is undertaking what it calls the student I-C-U program. Principal Andrew Haake says the effort arose out of a need to keep students from falling behind.


"We're facing some of those post-Covid hurdles....chronic absenteeism, lower than anticipated achievement scores due to absences, student apathy...our staff overwhelmingly decided our role in education is too important to continue some of that stagnation, that trend."


Administrators attended a conference last summer on the program, which was created by a Tennessee school to address class assignments and healthy grading to achieve student success. Haake says initial parental support of the program has been good. It involves tracking assignments that are given to students….what’s been completed…and what hasn’t.


"It breaks it down by grade level, you can look at how many, which "house" has the most outstanding assignments. We have our special education groups that are in there.....choir, delegation, we have our sports...so we can really look at those small sub-groups of students and really focus on them."


One goal is to recognize students who are falling behind, before they have a failing grade. Direct contact with parents, is part of the program.
"A teacher will put in a missing assignment into the database. Once they click go, or submit....a text or email goes out to parents. It'll state that they have an assignment that's outstanding. It states that students are on the BMS academic ICU list for missing assignments in so-and-so's class. We have many opportunities for intervention to get those assignments back."


Three staff members are designated at each Beatrice Middle School grade level as so-called lifeguards…..to work with students who need to catch up with assignments.  "They'll go around to different classes with students who are on the list and check in with them....I see you are on the list, what's your plan of getting that completed and get off the list. Students are required to give us what their plan is for getting the assignment done and off the list....and then we'll check in with them, tomorrow."


The Beatrice Middle School is just days into the program….but Haake says it’s already yielding results with students changing some of their habits as they work to complete assignments. The principal says the hope is to see some good success with students.