Districts expand summer school options

Gwinnett County: Some 40 schools offer camps for students, with many emphasizing math, science and technology.

Schools are letting out in Georgia, but don’t plan those summer trips to Disney World, jaunts to the swimming pool and camping expeditions just yet.

More schools want kids to stay connected to the classroom and have launched or expanded summer school offerings aimed at stemming the learning loss students often experience over the break.

It’s part of an effort by educators to emphasize that summer school is not just a time for remedial work but also a key opportunity for students to get ahead academically.

“It’s really transforming how the school year is happening,” said Katie Willse, the chief program officer with the National Summer Learning Association. “We are seeing schools running summer programs both for kids who need it because they’ve fallen behind but also offering it more broadly to their student population for the enrichment.”

Some parents are pushing back, saying kids already work hard and feel pressured during the school year and shouldn’t be expected to spend significant time with their noses in books or completing online courses.

Educators acknowledge there should be a balance of academic work and leisure activities for students, but they say summer has become too important for development and students shouldn’t totally disconnect from school. Districts are concerned about making the grade under the more rigorous Common Core standards, said Martha Reichrath, deputy state superintendent for curriculum, instruction, assessment and accountability for the Georgia Department of Education.

“Quite honestly, there’s not a lot of extra time in the school year,” Reichrath said. “We’ve seen some diminishment of the number of days that our districts have for instruction in some cases. So they are concerned about the increased rigor, the higher expectations, the new landscape for assessment, which is going to certainly require more critical thinking.”

To stem summer learning loss, Fulton County has developed its Summer Bridge program, where schools develop a variety of camplike activities that “relate to enhancement or acceleration or learning or providing hands-on experiences for kids,” said Scott Muri, Fulton County’s deputy superintendent for academics. Camps often emphasize science, technology, engineering and math as well as other subjects.

“We know the learning gaps that happen over the summer,” Muri said. “And so we have an obligation to our students to make sure we provide opportunities to fill those gaps so they’re actually not created.”

Cobb County is also offering a wider menu of courses for summer school, via online and traditional classrooms. Courses in Fulton, as in other school districts, vary in length and time, though many can last around two months. Some districts, including Cobb, require a tuition fee for students taking summer school courses, which range in cost from $275 to $550.

“Summer school in the historical sense has been about catching students up, who may have been missing credits,” said Doug Goodwin, a Cobb County School District spokesman. “While we certainly continue to offer that, many more of these programs are about offering these students opportunities to take classes to get ahead, to free up time for electives, to help them gain advanced credits for college.”

Jacob Boudreau, 16, is taking five courses this summer in Cobb in order to graduate early from high school in August. Health and physical education, he’ll take at Lassiter High School, while the others will be online, he said.

Boudreau, who’s taken Advanced Placement courses in high school to get ahead, wants to graduate early to launch his own online business in calligraphy.

“There’s obviously kids who need it (summer schools) for remedial work,” Boudreau said. “But it’s also a good thing for those who want to get ahead, especially since so many kids are already taking the highest level classes as possible to try and get into their dream college. They can’t fit it all in their schedules. So I think it’s a great idea to try and use it to fit it all in.”

Research shows students typically score lower on standardized tests at the end of summer vacation than they do on the same tests at the beginning of the summer. Most students lose months of math skills over the summer break, according to the National Summer Learning Association. Low-income students have traditionally been the most at-risk.

Melanie Heineman, a Cobb parent who has a child entering seventh grade and another in high school, said kids shouldn’t be overburdened — particularly elementary- and middle school-age students.

“I get it, but on the other hand, I’m not pushing my younger kid,” she said. “He’s got to read three books, and that’s all he’s gonna do. I’m not gonna have him in any kind of program or anything. Frankly, until they get to high school, just have them read over the summer. Unless your kid struggles in a certain area.”

To incentivize students to keep learning in the summer, schools are trying to make programs as fun as possible. In Gwinnett County, a growing number of schools — nearly 40 — are offering summer camps for younger kids. They include camps focusing on robotics, Legos and engineering, and science and technology.

In addition to beefing up its summer reading program — adding more reading choices for students — the district also offers an array of summer school courses.

“The mind-set has shifted from more intervention to acceleration” for summer programs, said Jonathan Patterson, Gwinnett’s associate superintendent for curriculum and instructional support. “I think it’s a much more sophisticated approach to summer — less a one size fits all.”