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Some students attend summer school to ace classes in fall
by Stella M. Chavez
Julie Chang is spending the summer learning calculus at a college prep school. In the fall, she's going to take calculus again, as a junior at Plano Senior High.
Her strategy is simple: Learn as much as possible about the subject over the summer so there's a good chance of acing the class when it really counts – during the school year.
Every summer, students enroll in rigorous courses at private schools and local community colleges. But Julie Chang and others like her elect not to receive credit. Instead, they hope to have greater success when they take the class for actual credit.
And maybe she can reach her goal of being valedictorian for the Class of 2010.
Every summer, a select group of students enrolls in rigorous courses from calculus to physics at private schools and local community colleges. But Julie and other highly motivated students like her elect not to receive credit. Instead, they hope their hard work over the summer will bring greater success when they take the class for actual credit.
Gone are the days when kids only attended summer school because they failed a class or to get certain courses out of the way. In what has become an increasingly competitive age, students these days are trying anything to stay ahead of the education curve.
Some, like Julie, 16, are ranked first in their class and want to make sure they remain No. 1.
"It's just a personal value and of course, it's good for your college application," said Julie, who takes the calculus class at the Dallas Chinese School in Richardson on weekends and hopes to attend Princeton or Stanford after graduation.
'Want to do well'
Other students, like Rex Huang, aren't necessarily vying for that top spot, but they also don't want to fall behind. Last summer, he took physics at Collin County Community College and then took it as a junior at his high school.
"I'm not really concerned about my GPA in that I have to get No. 1," said Rex. "I just basically want to do well."
It's difficult to know just how many students practice this strategy.
Becci Rollins, coordinator of counseling at Carroll ISD, said most students want to earn credit for the courses they take over the summer.
"I really don't know that very many of our students do it to be better prepared for a course later in the year," she said.
Some educators say there's nothing wrong with students learning the material ahead of time.
"It's gives them a foundation for when they take the course for credit," said Ed Pilkington, director of Willow Bend Academy in Plano, a school that focuses on individual instruction. "But they're also going to learn some things when they take it for credit that they didn't learn the first time."
Mr. Pilkington said only a few students have enrolled in not-for-credit courses during previous summer sessions at his school. The most popular are higher-level math classes like trigonometry and pre-calculus.
"We don't have a lot of them, but the ones that do it are the very competitive ones ... they feel like it gives them an advantage over their classmates," he said.
More to life?
Other educators, however, worry that some students aren't balancing learning with having fun.
Stephanie Barta, director of summer camps at St. Marks School of Texas, said she doesn't think kids should take rigorous courses over the summer if they don't have to. Her students are encouraged not to, she said.
"Constantly being tutored to do well at something kind of sets kids up not to have aspirations on their own," she said. "I think there's so much pressure. You've got to have a higher SAT."
She said it's just as important for students to develop social skills as well as their creative side.
Nancy Gale, director of summer sessions at Hockaday, describes taking difficult summer classes as "academic enrichment."
"They want to be prepared and maybe some of the preparation is building their confidence," she said. "My feeling or thought is that if a student is weaker in one area, over the summer if you don't do anything, you're just going to get weaker in it," she said.
The competitive nature of schools today makes it tempting for students – sometimes on their parents' advice – to enroll in purely academic summer classes, Ms. Gale said. She has suggested to parents that their children take at least one "just for fun" class.
"During the summer, let's make it a really fun learning environment," she said. "You don't want to send the message that you're being punished for going to summer school. I just feel for kids that they need to know that learning is fun."
Worth it to them
Kids interviewed for this story say they don't mind spending their summers studying.
Three summers ago, Niharika Mallepally, 18, took pre-calculus at Collin County Community College. Two summers ago, she took a general chemistry course. She ended up acing both classes the following school year at Plano East.
"Even though it didn't completely help me on everything, it was beneficial," she said. "I understood a lot more than my classmates, so I could help them."
Julie Chang said she normally participates on a swim team during the summer in addition to her studies. But this year, she's studying insects for a genetic research project at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Her face lights up when she describes her job.
"I sort the flies and find the mutant ones."
— Stella M. Chavez
Dallas Morning News
2008-07-23
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