Sweating Out the Summer

As herds of other Southern California students grab their towels and sunglasses and flock to the beach for the start of summer vacation, hundreds of incoming ninth-graders in Ventura County will put on their backpacks and head back to class.

The soon-to-be-freshmen will participate in a mandatory summer school program aimed at improving their reading skills. For 23 days this summer, the students--who now read at the sixth-grade level or below--will receive intensive instruction in reading, writing and study skills.

And when they finish the language arts class, they will be better prepared for high school and less likely to drop out, Oxnard Union High School District officials say.

The literacy program, in its second year, is being touted as an aggressive and innovative way to help students who previously fell through the cracks. And as school districts throughout California implement a host of tougher education standards, Oxnard’s program may become a statewide model.

“All districts right now are looking closely for hard intervention programs for students at risk of being retained” in their current grades, said Debby Lott, an education programs consultant with the state Department of Education. “The legislation has created an urgency that may not have been there in the past.”

School districts now are required to offer after-school tutoring or summer school classes for poor readers and not to promote students performing below grade level. And as part of Gov. Gray Davis’ education reform package, districts will administer an exit exam that members of the graduating class of 2004 must pass to receive their high school diplomas.

Other districts in Southern California have implemented similar summer intervention programs at the elementary school level.

For example, the Long Beach Unified School District in 1997 started requiring second- and third-graders not reading at grade level to attend a summer school class. And the Los Angeles Unified School District offers a voluntary summer class for low-performing elementary school students.

But the Oxnard program is thought to be among just a few in the state for high school students.

Oxnard Assistant Supt. Gary Davis stressed that districts need to emphasize literacy in high school just as much as in elementary school. Today’s high school students, he said, didn’t benefit from class-size reduction or other recent reforms.

Last year, Oxnard district counselors and teachers assigned 557 eighth-graders to the program based on test scores, grades and overall performance. Among the 313 who completed it was 15-year-old Robert Jurado. Before the summer session, he never read anything for fun, he said. Now when he gets home, he frequently picks up Tom Clancy books--the same ones his father reads.

“It makes me feel good,” Robert said. “My dad thought those books were too hard for me. I know that the summer school class helped me, because I can read a lot better than I could.” In fact, Robert said he is getting a C in English this year, up from an F last year.

Tiffany Dochick, 14, said she doesn’t think last year’s summer school class made her a better reader. But it did improve her grammar, she said.

Although Tiffany really wanted to sleep late all summer, she is glad she went to school. “It turned out to be a fun class,” she said. “And it was easier to learn, because there weren’t as many people and not as many distractions.”

This year, 1,000 students--or one-third of the incoming freshmen--were assigned to the program and more than half are expected to attend.

Also assigned to the summer classes will be ninth-graders who failed English in the fall and 11th-graders who have not met minimum standards in reading and writing.

“This is something that we can’t afford not to do,” school board member Irene Pinkard said. “We need to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to prepare these students to graduate and to enter the world of work.”

Oxnard’s program, funded by federal summer school and Title I money, requires students to spend 90 hours working on their reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. In classes with 15 to 20 others, students memorize vocabulary, practice outlining and note-taking, and work on reading comprehension and fluency. They also discuss what it takes to succeed at a job, such as computer literacy, punctuality and problem-solving.

Students who pass the course receive five credits toward English requirements. And the assigned students who don’t show up, or who don’t pass, receive an F.

In March, an Oxnard school district report found that students who finished the course last year had both higher grade-point averages and better attendance during the regular year than students who did not.

Without such intervention, said Camarillo High School Principal Terry Tackett, low-performing students are more likely “to drop out, and tend to turn off from school.”

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Implementation has presented challenges. Some students are reluctant to attend summer school, while some parents are unwilling to change their summer plans. And even students who do attend can lack motivation.

“The kids there are usually the most disconnected and [uninterested],” said Channel Islands High School teacher Chris Nordquist, who taught one of the classes. “Any time you’re asking kids to do something they don’t want to do, you have to be captivating and at the same time tough.”

Assistant Supt. Davis said it’s also difficult, if not impossible, to bring the students’ reading level up two years in just four weeks. “We can’t work miracles in a short period of time, especially in reading,” he said.

Rio Mesa High School counselor Becky Buettner, who helped organize the classes, agreed. But Oxnard’s summer reading program is a start, she said, and can serve as a model.

“With all the new mandates coming down from the state, one of the things everybody is looking at is improving reading,” she said. “And I think [other districts] are going to have to start looking at us.”

* SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LIVING: A variety of children’s books and stories, ranging from poignant to practical, honor Dad’s special roles. E5