Modesto schools’ summer offerings address ‘skyrocketing’ failure, enrichment, special ed
.JPG "The joy of art is among the proposed summer enrichment ‘boot camps’ to be offered by Modesto City Schools.")
The end approaches for a school year that has been a struggle for many students, a failure for some.
A Modesto City Schools district administrator told the Board of Education this week that the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting school closures and distance learning have meant “higher than usual D and F rates.”
And in a report to the board during a special meeting in February, Associate Superintendent Brad Goudeau said failing grades “were skyrocketing” during distance learning. As one example, he said the lowest “F” rate among junior highs for the first quarter was at Hanshaw, with 17.5%. That was up 10 percentage points from the prior year, he said.
Among high schools, Enochs had the lowest percentage of first-quarter failing grades, at 14.8%. That was nearly 9 points higher than the year before, Goudeau said. At Downey, nearly 32% of the first-quarter grades were F’s.
“At quarter one, we knew we were looking at double, triple, potentially quadruple the number of F’s than we would traditionally see at the end of quarter one,” he said at the February meeting.
Associate Superintendents Mark Herbst and Lauren Odell told trustees Monday night about summer education programs that include not only remediation but enrichment to “re-engage, motivate and excite students to come back into a classroom.”
Offerings tie into the district goal of equitable access for all students to attain college and career readiness, Herbst said, but more broadly will support English learner growth and provide intervention for kids struggling academically and/or behaviorally.
His presentation to the board focused on remedial offerings, beginning with grade school.
Elementary school offerings
Elementary summer programming is 19 instructional days, four hours a day, June 3-29. There will be remediation in the areas of English language arts and math.
The enrichment opportunities embedded in the curriculum will be developed by the individual schools, based on their strengths, Herbst said.
In the past, the district has offered summer school only at select sites, meaning students were bused and capacity was limited. This year, for the first time, schools will offer their own summer schools. “We will reach more kids — way more kids — than we have under the traditional model of busing them,” Herbst said.
The only exceptions, he said, will be schools where modernization work is going on. In those cases, which can be counted on one hand, students and staff will be at a neighboring school, he said.
All junior highs also open
Junior high school programming will follow the same 19-day calendar as the elementary schools, but with 3.5-hour days.
During the school day, students will take three courses, Herbst said. The mix can be two academic classes and one elective/enrichment, or one academic and two electives, he said.
“That’s going to give an opportunity to address any remedial skills but also give them an opportunity to take a course in an area of interest, something that would be fun ... over those summer months.”
Priority will be given to students with F’s or poor grades, Herbst said, but “that does not necessarily eliminate” students who passed a class but still need support in gap areas.
As with elementary schools, all junior highs will run their own programs. “In the past in our summer school offerings, we have had a very poor junior high school showing” in terms of enrollment, he said. “I would anticipate quite a few numbers just based on the fact of them hosting at their home site.”
High school, intersessions and special ed
The schedule for the high schools will be the same as the junior highs, Herbst told the board. There are morning and afternoon sessions, so students can take two courses for a total of 10 credits.
Students will use the Florida Virtual curriculum to make up lost credits.
And one completely new piece of summer break learning is intersessions at seventh through 12th grade, Herbst said.
These are not full class repeats as with Florida Virtual, he said, but rather a rapid way of a student bringing a failing grade up to passing, to get credits for graduation.
If a student got, say, a 50% in math class, he or she would work with the teacher on specific problem areas to attain a C or D grade. The district has seen success with winter and spring intersessions, Herbst said.
The extended school year offering for special education students is 20 days, as mandated by the education code, Herbst said.
It’s a six-hour day. Four hours are the mandatory piece offered every summer, he said. The other two hours address any compensatory education the district may owe students with disabilities “due to school closure and/or remediating deficient skills due to distance learning.”
Board of Education Vice President Adolfo Lopez asked Herbst if the 40 hours of compensatory education will cover what’s owed to special-ed students.
“Tough to tell,” the associate superintendent answered, adding that it will have to be looked at almost individual by individual.
“It definitely will help because I think that all of our kids made progress on distance learning,” Herbst said. “The amount of progress sometimes is dependent on the severity of the disability, but I would say 40 good hours is a nice chunk on top of the work that they’ve already been doing.”
Enrichment, or the fun stuff
Enrichment, or re-engagement, program offerings will not conflict with remediation scheduling, Odell said, so students can do both. Most re-engagement hours will be in July, though there will be some on afternoons in June.
There are 93 “boot camp” proposals across the district, and the offerings are teacher-driven, Odell said.
She gave a sampling of what’s planned, including robotics for English learners, one-act play performance and theater tech skills, and third-grade reading and math support.
One teacher wants to do running in the morning, reading in the afternoon, Odell said. Another wants to do “the joy of art.”
“There’s all kinds of really fun things going on,” she said. “It’s not so much about remediation where you missed standard 4.2. ... It’s more about how we teach these standards in a really joyful way, re-engage students, get them ready for the fall, get their mind back in class.
“And they’re all in person. None of this is going to be virtual, all the students will be present.”
The report on summer offerings can be viewed as an attachment in Monday night’s board agenda at agendaonline.net/public/modestocity. The board meeting can be watched on the MCS Board of Education channel of YouTube.
This story was originally published April 26, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
