CEDAR RAPIDS — In a summer school program called College for Kids, Maddison Zahradnik teaches a class based on the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.
It’s a class she got to design herself as a part of the program that offers more than 50 unique classes that cater to the interest of middle school students. Students not only get to engage in a possible lifelong hobby in Zahradnik’s class, but also get to explore literacy by writing scripts and novels.
“It’s a prime example of storytelling where you get to meet with friends, play a character you’ve designed who has a back story, and learn to problem solve and come up with creative solutions,” said Zahradnik, who teaches English as a second language in the Linn-Mar Community School District during the school year.
College for Kids is the “favorite thing of the summer” for Payton Wilcox, 13, a rising eighth-grader at McKinley STEAM Academy who is in the Dungeons & Dragons class.
Drew Ernest, 14, a rising freshman at Linn-Mar High School who also is in the Dungeons & Dragons class, said he’s working on boosting his confidence by enrolling in that class as well as improvisation.
College for Kids serves about 800 students each year in its summer enrichment program at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. High-ability middle school students are nominated to participate by their teachers either for their academic aptitude or artistic creativity.
The program’s future, however, may be in question after a new state law took effect July 1, changing the funding and structure of Area Education Agencies.
Under the law, special education dollars will remain with AEAs, but schools will receive 40 percent of the funds for media services and education services that now go to the AEAs. They can choose to use that money with the AEAs or with an outside party, and it can be spent on any general fund purpose.
Grant Wood AEA is in the process of “assessing all programs in the areas of educational services and media/technology, for which College for Kids falls within, in light of the changes made to state funding for the AEA system in those areas,” Chief Administrator John Speer said in a statement to The Gazette.
“College for Kids has always been, at least partially, supported through participant fees, and we are working diligentlyto determine the best way to offer College for Kids in a cost effectivemanner for both parents and (Grant Wood AEA),” Speer said. “Unless an unforeseenissue arises, we have every confidencethatCollege for Kids will continueto be offered to area students in a coordinatedfashion by (Grant Wood AEA).”
Grant Wood AEA serves a seven county region including Linn and Johnson counties, and assists students with disabilities and delivers general education and media services to educators.
College for Kids is funded through a variety of funding streams, including participant registration fees, grant support and dollars from Grant Wood AEA. About 70 percent of the total College for Kids budget is supported by registration fees and grants, Grant Wood AEA spokesman Jake Putnam said in an email to The Gazette.
Of the 800 students registered for the program this year, about 60 students received tuition assistance and 119 families elected for a payment plan, Putnam said.
Putnam said about 22 percent of students in the program quality for some sort of tuition support.
The program serves a majority of non-Hispanic/white students. About 23 students in the program this year are Black and 13 are Latin American. About 100 students did not voluntarily select their racial demographic when registering for the program.
Susie Green, a student programs specialist at Grant Wood AEA, said watching students explore their interests in College for Kids is like “watching a flower bloom.”
Classes like Sherlock Holmes and the Theory of Deduction, Acrylic Craze, Greek Mythology, and Dissection can engage students in ways they can’t find in a traditional school setting, Green said.
Noah Tiegs, who teaches Introduction to Spanish at College for Kids, said it reminds him why he loves teaching.
“It’s small class sizes with motivated kids,” said Tiegs, who teaches Spanish at Prairie High School during the school year. “Many of them are being exposed to Spanish for the first time and have this sense of wonder.”
Tiegs also was a student of College for Kids when he was in middle school.
“College for Kids is a glimpse of the best we can provide kids by giving them really specific classes they can’t take at their home schools,” Tiegs said. “I think it’s really important to have excited teachers, and especially excited male teachers present for kids this age.”
Grace King covers K-12 education for The Gazette.
Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com
