9486 in the collection  

New York City Offers a Sweaty Month of Math, Reading, and Writing Drills that Many View as a Tedious Waste of Time

Mid-June, and legions of New York City students are starting to shudder at the prospect of summer school: a sweaty month of math, reading and writing drills that many view as a tedious waste of time.

Could they be right? Three years ago, the city had its hopes pinned on a vastly expanded summer school program as the latest most promising cure for its woebegone public schools.

It was Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani who pressured the Board of Education into ending "social promotion" — the longstanding practice of promoting students despite failing grades — and organizing the nation's largest summer school program. It began in July 2000 and, in theory, the five-week summer sessions should by now have given a few hundred thousand students the extra push they needed to pass standardized tests and earn promotion to the next grade.

But as another school year ends and another mayor staggers under the burden of fixing the system, the idea of summer school-as-panacea seems to have fallen flat.

Problems have plagued the program from the get-go, despite expensive attempts to solve them.

Absenteeism has hobbled the program each year, even though educators have tried everything from hunting down truants to rewarding students who show up, with pizza parties and movie tickets. Without a state law making summer school compulsory for failing students — which legislators have not pursued because of the potentially astronomical expense and the risk of angering parents who vote — a significant percentage of those who desperately need extra academic help will not take advantage of the program.

Even more troubling are the results of the 2000, 2001 and 2002 summer programs, which are decidedly mixed. In all three years, fewer than half of failing students who showed up for summer school passed the end-of-summer reading and math exams, according to reports by Metis Associates, a private consulting firm. For eighth graders, summer school has in fact seemed to do more harm than good: the report found that in 2000 and 2002, they scored much lower on the end-of-summer tests than they had on spring exams.

"It never made sense to me to take our same not-so-great school system and make kids spend more time in it during the summer," said Eva S. Moskowitz, chairwoman of the City Council's Education Committee. "If you told me the very best teachers and the most skilled administrators were in charge of summer school and the kids were getting incredible quality, it would clearly be worthwhile. But the results have been anemic."

And while the chief goal of expanding summer school was to end social promotion, which Mr. Giuliani characterized as the school system's greatest recurring tragedy, the practice has quietly continued. The Metis report for summer 2002 — which Chancellor Joel I. Klein did not publicly release when it was published in December — said that the percentage of students who are promoted after attending summer school has risen steadily since 2000, even though most fail the end-of-summer tests.

In the most egregious example, 78.2 percent of eighth graders who attended in 2002 were promoted to ninth grade, even though none of the 1,865 who took the end-of-summer reading test scored at "proficient" or "advanced" levels in reading, and only a few did so in math.

Over all, 70.2 percent of the 56,518 students in third through eighth grades who were told to attend summer school and did so last year were promoted, even though fewer than half passed the end-of-summer tests. Harold O. Levy, the chancellor from January 2000 to August 2002, excused this phenomenon for three years straight because under the new promotion policy that the Board of Education adopted in 1999, promotion decisions may be based not just on test scores but on attendance and class work. So a student who failed the end-of-summer tests but came to class regularly might be promoted.

Chancellor Klein said early in his tenure last fall that he would review and perhaps change the policy. But he has not mentioned it publicly since then; some officials say his plans to reorganize the school system's administrative structure and introduce a citywide curriculum have taken precedence.

In fact, Mr. Klein's focus as the school year ends is on organizing a summer school program of sorts for teachers and principals, who need to be trained in the new curriculum by September. He hopes that several thousand teachers will sign up for voluntary summer training, which his staff is still putting together. As many as 2,000 new reading and math "coaches," hired to work with teachers as they begin to use the curriculum, will also attend training sessions this summer, as will 100 new instructional supervisors.

Meanwhile, Mr. Klein is also hustling to open a training academy in July for 90 new principals. With so many new projects consuming him, some educators say, Mr. Klein is just going through the motions with this year's summer program.

Asked if someone on Mr. Klein's staff could discuss his views on summer school, Jerry Russo, his press secretary, released a statement from Deputy Chancellor Diana Lam. "We are working to determine early on which students are struggling and in which areas they are experiencing difficulties," the statement said, "so that we may intervene and provide the appropriate support before the school year ends."

Because of budget cuts, the number of students recommended for summer school dropped sharply in 2002 and is expected to drop again this year, though Mr. Klein has not yet released projected enrollment figures. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has cut $21 million from the summer school budget, so that only students with rock-bottom grades can attend, meaning that many of the B and C students who came in past years will have to stay home.

While he is cutting the summer school budget, Mr. Bloomberg is pouring millions of dollars into the new curriculum and his school improvement plans. Veterans of the system, who have seen plenty of chancellors do away with their predecessors' programs in their eagerness to create their own legacy, say they are not surprised that summer school is not in the limelight.

"Summer school is a big help to kids who are falling behind, but it's gotten short shrift because it's not theirs," said Randi Weingarten, president of the city teacher's union, referring to Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein.

Others say that summer school was destined to fail because there has never been a thoughtful effort to train teachers or match up skills with assignments. One teacher in Brooklyn had to teach math last year, for example, even though she was an English teacher who had never taught a math class in her life.

Another problem is that each of the city's 32 local school districts selects its own summer schedules and curriculums, and there has been no careful analysis of what works. In middle school alone, there were 20 math programs in use last summer, suggesting that the program has lacked the kind of systemwide coherency that Mr. Klein has deemed crucial and is seeking with the new citywide curriculum.

Ms. Moskowitz said that given summer school's mixed record, the focus should perhaps change to subjects like art, music and physical education, which many schools do not have during the regular year.


— Abby Goodnough
Can Pupils Learn in One Sticky Month What They Didn't in 9?
New York Times
June 16, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/16/nyregion/16SCHO.html?tntemail1

---

INDEX OF OUTRAGES

Pages: 380   
[1] 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>    Last >>