Students Find School’s No Longer Out for Summer

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 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 sending failing students to 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 throughout the Southland have vastly expanded their summer remedial offerings in elementary and middle schools but are still faced with waiting lists. With the top priority going to struggling students, many campuses no longer have space for the pupils seeking extra credit.

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 limited to 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 of 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.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District 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, said district summer school Director Doris Dillard.

The district has since decided that it will hold students back only in the second and eighth grades, and remedial offerings at elementary schools have been limited. Only students 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 emphasize 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 videos 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.”