How I Spent My Summer Vacation ; Smaller Classes, Highly Skilled Teachers Help Students Get on Track
By ANDREA SCHOELLKOPF Journal Staff Writer
Twenty-four days of school left. But who’s counting if you’re bound for summer school?
Last year, the school year didn’t end at Memorial Day for thousands of Albuquerque Public Schools students who signed up for courses and got back on track with grades and reading levels.
Last year, high school students took a combined total of 3,800 summer school courses — although the exact number of students was not immediately available. Meanwhile, there were about 4,000 students enrolled in the elementary and middle school summer programs.
The number of classes, said Marie Fritz, instructional manager for the APS Summer Program, is not tied to demand so much as the availability of instructors.
“Let’s say there might be (enough students signed up for) a chemistry class, but nobody to teach it,” Fritz said. “That could happen.”
At the high school level, the only class being offered at all six sites is Algebra I. Eldorado High, for instance, is offering more courses than any other site this summer, but not ninth- or 11th- grade English.
And La Cueva is the only place in town offering chemistry.
While demand for some of these classes may be high, APS for the first time is creating a waiting list for courses that have reached capacity when counselors enroll students in the coming weeks.
In years past, if a student was signed up for a full class and parents didn’t show up to register their child, APS did not have a way to contact students who weren’t able to get into a class.
As in the last few years, on-line enrollment is conducted only at the schools themselves by a counselor. Actual registration occurs when the parent shows up during designated days — which differ, depending on the program — and either pays for the course or confirms the student will attend if there is no fee in the case of most elementary and middle school programs.
“The reason the parents have to show up is the parents need to be sure they are committed to sending the student to summer school, and actually know where the site is,” Fritz said, adding that families need to provide their own transportation for summer programs.
Elementary and middle school students, however, may take summer school only if they are referred by their schools because of deficiencies in reading, as well as math for middle school.
And parents of such students, she said, already should be somewhat aware of their child’s standing due to numerous literacy tests that have been given throughout the school year to monitor reading levels and progress.
Students qualify through Academic Improvement Plans at their schools.
“Basically, the student is not reaching grade level proficiency as determined by the district assessments,” said Peggy Candelaria, literacy coordinator for the APS summer program.
Middle school students have two options.
For those students who are proficient in reading but just aren’t passing their classes, the “traditional” tuition-funded summer school classes will be offered in either language arts, math or special education, with discounted prices for students participating in the federal free or reducedcost school lunch program.
And for those who are testing behind their grade levels in reading and writing, there is a literacy summer course that is available free to middle schoolers, Candelaria said.
The programs have shown tremendous success rates over the years, said Danielle Calvillo, who runs the summer school program at John Adams Middle School.
“Their scores went up leaps and bounds,” Calvillo said.
In the program, class sizes are a maximum of seven students in reading and 14 in math, she said, whereas the rest of the school year typically has class sizes of 25.
“It is intentional,” she said. “… Smaller class sizes have proven to have more teacher one-on-one time.”
Calvillo said she also tries to find highly skilled teachers — some even come down from the high school level — to work in the summer school.
“These are our most needy kids,” Candelaria said. “They need master teachers.”
At the elementary level, the focus is on bringing kids up to grade level in reading, and the programs are free.
“The child will experience just literacy for three hours with one teacher and six other students,” said June Gandert, who coordinates the APS Second Grade Reading Academies, an intensive reading program that is separate from the other literacy programs offered to firstthrough fifth-graders.
With such a small class, Gandert said, the students are tested each week for improvement and given strategies on decoding words. Also at each school, the seven children with the lowest reading scores will be given individual one-onone tutoring.
With students entering the program below their grade level, some 74 percent of the students were reading at grade level by the end of the five-week program last year. It was a bit higher in 2005, with 78 percent.
“It’s kind of intense,” Gandert said, “but it’s fun.”
Snacks and take-home books are being provided for the Second Grade Reading Academy through a grant from the Albuquerque Community Foundation and Comcast.
Summer high school
WHEN: Online registration by school staffs: April 24-May 23. On- site registration for students and parents: Montgomery Complex, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., May 31-June 2.
WHERE: Freedom High School, 5200 Cutler NE; Valley High School (double session), 1505 Candelaria NW; La Cueva High School, 7801 Wilshire NE; Eldorado High School, 11300 Montgomery NE; West Mesa High School, 6701 Fortuna NW.
TUITION FOR APS STUDENTS: $200 for 0.5 credit (one semester), $400 for one credit (two semesters).
TUITION FOR NON-APS STUDENTS:
$250 for 0.5 credit (one semester), $500 for one credit (two semesters).
TERMS:
Term I: June 4-June 25, 7:50 a.m.-noon, 12:45 p.m.-5 p.m. Valley only.
Term II: June 26-July 18 (Holiday on July 4), 7:50 a.m.-noon, 12:45 p.m.-5 p.m. Valley only.
Summer graduation at 6 p.m. July 19.
(c) 2007 Albuquerque Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.