By Jennifer Mrozowski
The Cincinnati Enquirer

While thousands of vacationing Tristate students played with new computer games last week, 10 fourth-grade students at W.E.B. DuBois Academy attended mandatory reading camp.

Candace Clark, 9, reads a science book during reading camp. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

At one table Friday, four students worked with the school superintendent on vocabulary words like epidermis, niche and symbiosis.

At another table, a group of three worked with Jocelynn Anderson, a Miami University sophomore and education major, on reading What a Blast! and other books, then filled out worksheets describing what they read.

"I don't want to be sitting at home playing with my Christmas toys," said Shannon Carpenter, 9, of North Fairmount. "It's better to go to reading camp and have someone help you with your work."

Superintendent Wilson Willard required all fourth-grade students in the Over-the-Rhine charter school who have not passed the state's fourth grade reading test to attend the four-day, 10-hour-a-day reading camp over their winter break (two days last week and two days this week).

Those who don't attend are marked absent.

Mr. Willard says he wants to make sure that he increases the percentage of students who pass the test, even though his school - with 40 percent of fourth-graders scoring "proficient" or higher - had the highest passing rate of all the charter schools in Hamilton County.

Next best rate among the county's charter schools was T.C.P. World Academy in Pleasant Ridge, with 17 percent of fourth-graders passing.

W.E.B. DuBois, an elementary school that opened in September 2000, also surpassed Cincinnati Public Schools' pass rate of 21 percent. Statewide, 45 percent of students passed.

Students have two more chances to take the test this school year.

Mr. Willard believes the only way to help kids improve their reading is to give struggling students extra time and attention.

Fourth-graders who haven't passed the state test also attended reading camp during the Thanksgiving break. They also will attend school on some Saturdays and Sundays before they retake the test in March.

Time is a key strategy at W.E.B. DuBois, where students go to school 240 days a year, instead of about the typical 180 days in other public schools. The school day is also longer -10 hours, from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. Most elementary students attend seven hours per day.

A new reading specialist will join the staff in January to provide struggling fourth graders one-on-one instruction and help improve the reading program for first and second grades.

Mr. Willard said the emphasis on reading helped the school make significant strides on reading tests in the past two years. The first year the school was open, 4 percent of fourth-graders passed the reading test. That increased to 15 percent the next year.

While Mr. Willard said the 40 percent passage rate is a good start for the students' try this year, he wants to see improvement on the March and July tests.

"We want our scores to rival the very best districts," he said. "We want to be one of the elite schools."

Even if it means requiring some students to hit the books while others are testing out new toys. Still, fourth-graders at school Friday didn't seem to mind.

"I'm just getting me an education while others are out playing," said 11-year-old Lamonte Beavers of Winton Place. "I'll just be smarter than them."

E-mail jmrozowski@enquirer.com

SEE CINERGY IMPLOSION
Animation from Enquirer photos
Video from WCPO
Galleries: Implosion | Crowd | Aerial shots | Views from Kentucky

CINERGY IMPLOSION STORIES
Cinergy Field down in 37 seconds
Cleanup begins today, will take months
No hitches, no errors
New skyline already earning praise
What's next for the Riverfront?
Partiers impressed by implosion
Fifty-five years that shaped Cincinnati's riverfront

TOP LOCAL HEADLINES
64th homicide tops 15-year record
Vandals strike Nativity scene
Former contacts respect monitor
Experimental treatment may give boy 2nd chance
School is out, but reading class is in

PETER BRONSON COLUMN
Heart surgery for a city

AROUND THE TRISTATE
Tristate A.M. Report
Hometown Heroes: Helping others full-time job for trio
School kids broadcast news
Good News: Students do chores for charity
Obituary: Frank David Bergstein, 85, longtime inventor
You Asked For It
Congrats

OHIO
Ohio towns look for ways to save
Wright brothers ensured preservation of prairie

KENTUCKY
Woman recounts struggle in essay
Ala. church: No misconduct from priest
Rabbits plentiful for Ky. hunters
Educators support tax changes to help fund their schools
Ky. guard member in Rose parade

INDIANA
Report: Indiana needs to rethink funding for higher education
Gas tax increase among Indiana laws beginning in 2003
Robert O'Bannon Jr., 71, brother of Ind. governor, dies