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Summer school: There's a whole lot of learning going on

Published June 17th, 2006 | 3 Comments

Frances Cross, a volunteer with the summer reading program at Cedar Grove Elementary School, reads along with Madison Rupe, who will enter second grade in the fall. Erica Yoon photo.

Frances Cross, a volunteer with the summer reading program at Cedar Grove Elementary School, reads along with Madison Rupe, who will enter second grade in the fall. Erica Yoon photo.

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KINGSPORT - The hallways, for the most part, are empty. The classrooms are dark. But one area of the building at Cedar Grove Elementary School is abuzz with activity.

Bean bag chairs and pillows are scattered everywhere. Children are in their comfort zone - reading in and around the library, taking Accelerated Reader tests in the adjoining computer lab, and logging their successes.

School isn't even officially in session. It's mid-June and no one HAS to be here. Yet, there's still a whole lot of learning going on.

"Many times, a program you offer like that has its novelty and then loses some momentum, but that has grown every year," said Carol Briggs, Sullivan County Schools' Supervisor of Elementary Curriculum. "It's probably the longest running (summer library) program in the county.

"What I think is particularly good about that is that it is voluntary. It's not something that puts any type of pressure on the student and it encourages them to read. But beyond actually reading or coming in and decoding words, they're actually tested on comprehension and that's where our real focus is," she said.

It's not just happening at Cedar Grove either. Throughout Sullivan County, and in Kingsport city and Hawkins County schools, students are taking advantage of summer learning programs designed to make sure students are where they need to be and ready to hit the ground running when they return to class in the fall.

"We now have a lot of opportunities for students in the summer," said Nancy Wagner, Kingsport City Schools' assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. "It really is building a bridge from one year to the next."

From school libraries offering hours for parents and children to come in and check out books to technology camps and learning lock-ins, summer school has taken on a whole new look. At least at the elementary school level.

"Whether kids are coming to get remediation for skills they haven't mastered yet, or to boost them to get them ready for the new school year, they think they're coming just to have fun," Wagner said.

"It doesn't have a negative connotation. It's not like it's punishment. It's not like �You're in summer school so you must have failed.' That mind-set is not there anymore," she explained.

Today's summer programs typically boast very low student-teacher ratios, which allows for individualized, one-on-one attention. Most feature a lot of hands-on activities and focus on certain objectives - usually reading or math. And, almost always, they're a lot of fun.

"In the age of technology, with so many things that are exciting for students, why not make it exciting? Then, not only is it intense and focused, but it's also fun," Briggs said.

School-sponsored or not, summer learning has proved to be very important for students.

Research from the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University shows that students typically lose one to two months of reading and math skills during summer break. That, educators say, is a slide children simply can't afford to go down if they want to stay on target in school.

"The early childhood years are really, really important because they are foundational," Wagner said.

"If students are able to read at or above grade level by the time they finish second grade - and by that we mean with comprehension and fluency - and they've got a good foundation in math, they're going to be able to be successful," she said.

There was a time, school officials said, when teachers would spend weeks at the beginning of each school year re-teaching material students had forgotten. But today's high-stakes testing and accountability standards have put a premium on time to teach. And new trends in education, including an emphasis on the need for differentiated instruction, has changed the way teachers teach.

"When you start school now, review for six weeks is really a passe kind of thing. What you do is a diagnostic type of activity so you know where the students are and you start immediately there," Briggs said.

The emergence of value-added scoring as a diagnostic tool has played a big part in that, she said.

"You're supposed to gain a whole year regardless of whether you're gifted or at any other level. We shouldn't be happy we've made it through and everybody got through on grade level, because there are always some who were already ahead," Briggs said.

"There are children who don't need a review and you're burning daylight for those students who don't need it if you spend time doing that," she added.

Brain research has also revealed the importance of using skills and knowledge regularly in order to retain them.

"We've learned a lot about the brain. We've learned that it's something we need to keep active. It's no different than physical activity. We shouldn't just exercise in the summer. We need to exercise all throughout the year," Briggs said. "It's kind of that �use it or lose it' theory."

At the middle and high school levels, the summer school programs are more of what most people think of when they think of traditional "summer school."

"I think the remediation is always going to be there because we care about kids and we want them to be prepared," Wagner said. "And we know if they go in unprepared, they're going to have a harder time in that grade and it's just going to snowball."

Using extended contract funds established with the career ladder program in Tennessee in 1995, schools can pay teachers for before- and after-school tutoring and remediation efforts during the school year which help address problems as they emerge and during the summer months.

But technology has changed this area too. Both Kingsport and Sullivan County now offer a Credit Recovery program using ALS, an alternative computer-based learning system, that along with a lab facilitator provides students with the one-on-one help they need in the specific areas they need it.

"It personalizes it for them. They've taken the course and they weren't successful, but there were parts of it they understood. They just didn't get it all so they can just focus on the things they need," Wagner said.

The credit recovery programs, which also utilize extended contract funds to put highly qualified teachers in the classroom, have helped expand the offerings and provide an even better chance for students to stay on track or get back on track to graduate.

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Mr. Simmons, I apologize much for getting your name wrong. That happens to my sons all the time.

Daphne Matthews | 6/18/2006 - 9:39 AM - ( Comment

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I'm sure that many summer programs are abused as Mr. Richards has pointed out. However, between my Junior and Senior years at Volunteer High School, I went to a summer program voluntarily. I had struggled through Algebra II but was convinced that I had to take Trig. and Calcalus my senior year to get into a good college. I took the summer program and then made straight A's in Trig. the next year. I learned more that summer than I had the three years prior in the regular classroom.

Daphne Matthews | 6/18/2006 - 9:37 AM - ( Comment

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I remember my time in summer school at Central High School. I had to have an English credit, so I paid nearly $400 for the course. Each morning we would arrive, walk from the English class into the "Art" room, and print, staple, and bundle the next years student manuals. Yep, I didnt learn a bit of English structure, but I'm sure glad all those students got their rulebooks come August, and I got my "A".

| 6/18/2006 - 6:25 AM - ( Comment

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