Monday, August 07, 2000
Summer school goes high-tech
By Jennifer Mrozowski
The Cincinnati Enquirer
From virtual classes to expanded course offerings, hundreds of Warren County students found themselves in classrooms and at keyboards this summer.
The Warren County Career Center's virtual learning academy offered social studies, English and science courses through the Internet for the first time.
“We think it was a real success,” said Wayne Miles, student services coordinator for adult education.
Twenty-two students came to school once a week during the five-week program, handled classwork online and e-mailed the results to their instructor. One course cost $225 for Warren County residents.
The computer lab at the career center was available to students without computers at home, said Mike Ferguson, the center's deputy superintendent.
“This is the wave of the future,” he said.
The virtual courses “give school districts so much more of a diversified curriculum” within a given subject area, he said.
Enrollment in the center's traditional summer classes was about four times higher than last year. Mr. Ferguson said that was because more districts offered summer programs in-house.
More than 140 students participated in Lebanon schools' summer school debut. Lebanon offered math, English, science and health courses. Next summer, the district plans to expand offerings for students to do remedial work, summer school Principal David Brausch said.
Mason schools expanded course offerings this summer beyond math and language arts for that reason.
Adding a social studies course for middle-school students made students more accountable, spokeswoman Shelly Benesh said.
“In the past, if social studies was failed for the year, there was no summer consequence or opportunity for re-teaching and learning the necessary material,” Ms. Benesh said.
Kings schools expanded its summer intervention program, adding math to its reading classes. Its program is aimed at struggling students in grades three through six, part of the state-required summer intervention initiative.
The extra help is offered to students who fail three out of five sections of the proficiency tests in either the fourth or sixth grade or to third-graders not reading at grade level, Assistant Superintendent Dick Bell said.
Leanne Ryan, math curriculum leader, said the pro gram provides a boost.
“I think if you don't use (information), you tend to lose it,” she said. “Or it gets buried. But when kids come in having done something over the summer, they seem to have a better grip on learning.”
Corey Zinser, 10, who participated in the Kings summer intervention program, had only one week off school before he was back in class for half days this summer. But Corey didn't mind.
He liked “that we learned more stuff that we did in regular school.”
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