For Many, No School Vacation

It’s a somber group of students heading for class this summer.

Often thought of as a glorified form of day care or an academy for advanced students to earn credits and get ahead, summer school has been largely transformed this year into a solemn work environment for lagging students who are in danger of repeating a grade.

“Summer school used to be somewhat of a summer camp, and now it’s really an extension of the school year,” said Michelle Benham, summer school director for the Capistrano Unified School District in south Orange County.

The change has been fueled mostly by the state’s ban on social promotion in elementary and middle schools, which takes effect this fall in most districts and ends the practice of permitting failing students to enter the next grade.

The policy requires districts to offer extra help to those who are in danger of being held back, and for many students, summer school is their last chance to show they are ready for the next grade.

Schools across the Southland have vastly expanded their summer remedial offerings in elementary and middle schools but are still faced with waiting lists. With top priority going to the struggling students, many campuses no longer have space for the ones looking to pick up extra credits.

And the enrichment classes that used to mark many elementary summer schools--chess lessons and science explorations--have either disappeared or operate side by side with more sober academic fare.

In Huntington Beach, the summer session’s new name imparts a sense that this isn’t for kidding around. The Ocean View School District’s summer Literacy Academies are taught by teachers trained in building basic skills, and class sizes have been capped at 20.

In the Pasadena schools, where 7,700 youngsters will hit the books this summer, it is virtually impossible to get a spot without a teacher’s written recommendation that class time is necessary to boost grades and test scores.

“Summer school used to be first-come, first-served. And sure we did some academics, but there were also some fun things,” said Gloria Delaney, an assistant superintendent at the Pasadena Unified School District. “But now it’s a much more structured program, and we really focus on reading, math and bringing scores up.”

Los Angeles Unified didn’t offer summer classes for elementary school students until last year. About 33,000 students in second through fifth grades who were falling behind got extra instruction last summer, LAUSD summer school director Doris Dillard said.

The district has since decided it will hold students back only in the second and eighth grades, and remedial offerings at elementary schools have been limited. Only kids whose teachers said they were at risk of repeating second or third grades are eligible for summer instruction, Dillard said.

On the first day of summer classes at Hope View Elementary in Huntington Beach last Wednesday, students in Mary Rich’s fifth-grade class spent about an hour getting to know one another, discussing favorite foods and subjects.

But they quickly got to work, answering what Rich said would be a daily ritual of language, geography and math questions at the beginning of class.

The 14 students sat hunched over notebooks and made corrections to the sentence: “The horse has grew a lot because he has ate good.”

Fifth-grader Amanda Buckels said she didn’t mind missing out on TV cartoons or the beach in order to take on the classroom tasks.

“I think I should work on my math a little more,” Amanda said. “Multiplication is kind of hard.”

“It’s skills-based, down-to-business learning, and there’s very little fluff,” said Hope View summer school Principal Karen Ayres.

And with the advent of the high school exit exam, summer courses will probably intensify for older students in future years as well. Seniors in the Class of 2004, who will be freshmen this fall, will be the first group required to pass a state-mandated standardized test to receive their diplomas.

The exam will be given for the first time next spring, and students will have several opportunities during each year of high school to take and pass different versions of it.

Capistrano Unified is trying a pilot program for 40 students at each of its four high schools this summer that will pound in basic skills, much like the district’s program for younger students.

“Next year, it’s planned that this will be a large part of the summer school program for high school students,” said Benham, Capistrano’s summer school director.

But there’s a certain sense of sadness over the loss of elective courses. Benham remembers summer as the time she learned to play trombone, edit video and type.

“It’s too bad. There are a lot of kids who are achieving at or above grade-level, and it was wonderful to offer them those courses,” Benham said. “On the other hand, it gives me a sense of hope and pride that we are really touching each kid who needs help in a way we haven’t in the past.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Dog Days for Students

State law now requires districts to provide after-school, weekend and summer instruction to struggling students in elementary and middle schools and hold them back a year if they don’t show enough improvement. The following chart shows the increase in hours of instruction between July and April of the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 academic years. The figures don’t include the current summer sessions, when even higher numbers of students are expected to drill their reading, writing and math skills.

*--*

District ‘98-’99 ‘99-2000 % change Anaheim City 25,966 42,497 63.7% Anaheim Union High 894,851 894,851 0.0% Brea Olinda Unified 79,049 83,571 5.7% Buena Park 41,383 49,079 18.6% Capistrano Unified 571,289 665,502 16.5% Centralia 54,665 43,245 -20.9% Cypress 46,292 68,993 49.0% Fountain Valley 51,850 65,776 26.9% Fullerton 95,819 116,979 22.1% Fullerton Joint Union High 513,352 532,797 3.8% Garden Grove Unified 464,410 441,978 -4.8% Huntington Beach 68,656 60,442 -12.0% Huntington Beach Union High 395,923 431,925 9.1% Irvine Unified 506,901 487,477 -3.8% La Habra 75,987 79,605 4.8% Laguna Beach Unified 21,227 34,179 61.0% Los Alamitos Unified 126,701 122,574 -3.3% Magnolia 61,963 82,241 32.7% Newport-Mesa Unified 149,349 175,290 17.4% Ocean View 85,291 94,276 10.5% Orange Unified 415,170 402,530 -3.0% Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified 330,433 421,762 27.6% Saddleback Valley Unified 509,452 578,611 13.6% Santa Ana Unified 969,663 1,283,850 32.4% Savanna 16,672 19,513 17.0% Tustin Unified 200,216 325,615 62.6% Westminster 103,189 136,579 32.4%

*--*