Northside Intermediate School

3R Academy

Opelika City Schools

Principal, Ms. Cindy Poteet

Superintendent, Dr. Farrell Seymore

Northside Intermediate School’s 3R Academy was developed as a proactive approach to address lagging skills that impeded students’ classroom success. Students attended the 3R Academy during PE and Special Classes time, eliminating the need for In-School Suspension. The 3R Approach included 3 steps all students completed before returning to these classes. First, students were asked to “Reflect” on their behavior and worked with staff to identify the lagging skill holding them back from being successful. Once the skill was identified, students then participated in a hands-on PBL activity with a mentor to “Reframe” the problem and create a solution to it. Students created and presented a product to show their learning before moving to the last step. The “Restore” step allowed the student to repair the damaged relationship and move forward. Northside’s mindset of “Kids Do Well If They Want To” evolved into “Kids Do Well If They Can” - which helped focus on the cause of the behavior as opposed to the behavior itself. As a result of implementing the 3R Academy, Northside experienced higher academic achievement, more students in class for instruction, and higher attendance. Discipline referrals also decreased by over 30%.