It’s the end of the school day at Prairie View elementary, but you wouldn’t know if you wandered into one of two Homework Zone classrooms. The classrooms are filled with students reading, filling out worksheets, or gathering together for a word or math game on the whiteboard. Inside one classroom Vicki Effertz, a teacher at Prairie View, works with Scharmarke Yasin to make some flash cards of multiplication facts.

“I have a test tomorrow,” notes Scharmarke.

“They love getting to stay,” said ELL Teacher Diane Emahiser, about the students who participate in Homework Zone.

Since September, more kids than ever have been able to participate in the program, which is primarily used by ELL or English language learner students. This year, the Homework Zone has operated out of Prairie View and the number of participants has expanded from 15 students to 46.

“It’s community building,” noted Linda Fullerton, a Prairie View teacher.

“It’s a lifetime skill,” added Emahiser.

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Homework Zone started about three years ago through Forest Hills teacher Maureen Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald created Homework Zone at three different Eden Prairie apartment complexes. The idea was to gather homework help where students live. Prairie View teachers Fullerton and Effertz had both been visiting Briar Hill apartments for a year and a half to work with students from Prairie View and Forest Hills. This past September, with the addition of busing for the children, the participating students now remain at Prairie View Monday through Thursday, from 2:45 to 4:15.

 “This year, it’s really expanded,” said Effertz.

The two Zone classrooms include one for kindergarten and first-grade students and the other for second- through fourth-grade students. Teachers including Effertz, Emahiser and Fullerton along with high school volunteers help to supervise and aid the students.

“A lot of their homework is getting done that wasn’t getting done before,” noted Emahiser, who is helping with the Homework Zone for the first time this year.

And moving it back to the school has its advantages.

“The big thing is the resources,” said Fullerton.

Now children have access to computers, atlases, globes … “they’ll need dictionaries,” she added.

Effertz noted that another advantage to moving Homework Zone to Prairie View is that more teenage tutors show up because it’s closer to the high school,

 “The kids just really connect with them,” said Fullerton about the high school volunteers.

“They get so much accomplished,” she added.

The progress children make involves more than just tackling homework.

Effertz remembered when they started, kids couldn’t do flash cards, she said.

Just the ability to play a game or to have self direction, is a change she’s seen with the children, she said.

Homework Zone is a place for kids to do work their parents may not be able to help them with. There, students have access to resources they may not have at home.Fullerton said it’s a solid way to address the achievement gap.

 If a child accomplishes something that child will feel that success, and carry it on.

Effertz stressed that the aspect of connecting with the high school kids is also important.

 “They love each other,” she said about the little kids and the high school students, she said.

“They have great connections.”