Don't Get ZAPPED At SHS

Students at Shepherd High School who do not turn in their homework will consequently be sent to the ZAP room.

Zeros Aren’t Permitted (ZAP) at SHS and to enforce this belief, faculty is trying a new method in order for students to complete their assignments.

“A professional development speaker from another school first mentioned the ZAP program to our staff,” said SHS principal Douglas Bush. “From there, the Science Department decided to pilot the idea.”

ZAP’s success within the Science Department proved the entire high school needed to implement the program.

“As a staff, we know that one correlation to student failure is not completing work," Bush said.

Staff was concerned about students failing classes and not receiving the skills needed for future success.

“It’s more critical than ever that students stay on track to graduate in four years,” Bush said. “Our primary purpose is to increase student achievement.”

ZAP began on September 30th and teachers have noticed students taking their schoolwork more seriously.

“There are fewer kids who are not doing their homework on time,” Bush said. “They realize they might as well do their work and get full credit since they’ll have to do it anyway.”

Since its initiative, there have been 11 ZAP sessions, held every Tuesday and Thursday. In that time, 299 students have been assigned ZAP.

“Some of these students count more than once because they were assigned ZAP by more than one teacher,” Bush said.

Students who do not attend ZAP after school are assigned ZAP during the following two lunch periods.

“We have taken the stand that if students don't take care of the academic responsibilities, they will have to lose some of the social time,” Bush said.

Teachers who sign up to be a ZAP room supervisor receive pay for running the 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. sessions.

“It takes all of us working together to maximize success,” Bush said.

Failure is not an option at SHS and academic programs, like ZAP, allow students to take one step further in the right direction.