Spartan Success Program
Our Spartan Success Program was established over 25 years ago as a specialized academic program designed to help incoming freshmen find their personal success in school in the areas of Math, Study Skills, and English.
There are three components to this program:
STUDY SKILLS
This course improves the student’s reading, writing, note-taking, organizational, and test preparation skills with lessons aimed to help students find success. All lessons are created with the mindset of helping students find success in their current classes and in the future. There is time given for study, homework, test preparation, research, etc., for other classes under the supervision of two De La Salle instructors. Study Skills may be taken in lieu of a world language in the student's freshman year.
MATH
Students may be selected to take Concepts of Algebra 1A freshman year, followed by Concepts of Algebra 1B in their sophomore year. This course is taught with a smaller class size, proceeds at a slower pace, and develops some math skills students typically struggle with when entering high school. At the end of the sophomore year, students will be able to advance into Geometry, followed by Algebra II in their Senior year. This will give students four full years of math, and fulfill the math requirement for eligibility to a four-year college. Math support is also offered during Study Skills.
ENGLISH
We dedicate time in our Study Skills class to work on Membean (our vocabulary system). We also offer Book Club with the librarians and have time dedicated to the essay writing process. The curriculum throughout Study Skills has been developed by our English Department chair.
Who Can Participate
Students are selected by the admissions team based on HSPT scores, middle school grades, teacher and principal recommendations, as well as past support given to students. There is no separate application for students as we have a limited number of spaces available each year. This class is graded and is worth credits for graduation.
There is also a two-week Summer Session that includes Math, English, and Spartan Life. This gives incoming students an opportunity to familiarize themselves with various people on campus like our Athletic Director, our Director of Student Support, and/or our President. The final session culminates with a tour of campus to prepare students and build a level of comfort before the first day of school.
The focus of this program is to support, guide, and help students find their own personal success in school. Everything we do in this program is with that in mind.
If you have questions, please contact Mr. Sean Bristol at bristols@dlshs.org or (925) 288-8104.