Monday, July 01, 2002
Summer studies keep skills sharp
By Cindy Kranz ckranz@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Summer schoolwork is taking a bigger bite out of summer vacation for more students across the Tristate. For years, high school students have been assigned summer reading and reports. But now, schools are increasingly assigning reading and math to younger students, expanding summer school requirements or providing voluntary opportunities for kids to keep their skills sharp.
Besides combatting the annual summer brain drain, schools are under pressure from parents to the White House to improve test scores.
“Accountability certainly is driving higher expectations, but that is not a bad thing,” said Patti Grey, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Education.
“What is helpful for parents to think about is, by engaging their children over the summer, learning doesn't take a vacation. They're actually giving their kids a leg up on the next school year.”
President Bush's “No Child Left Behind” legislation calls for:
• Annual tests, effective with the 2005-06 school year, in reading and math for students in grades 3-8.
• An expanded reading program.
• Statewide accountability systems for all students.
The summer academic push can be linked to increased pressure to improve test scores.
In Princeton's case, however, it's also the result of the district being more focused, said Lynn Resch Bartz, preK-12 curriculum coordinator for Princeton City Schools.
For example, the district's K-5 summer school program is fine-tuned to the new state standards in English Language Arts. Students this summer are concentrating only on reading comprehension, phonemic awareness, decoding words and writing.
Similarly, Princeton fourth-graders who haven't passed the reading portion of the state proficiency test are taking voluntary classes, working on skilsl and drills.
“It's a no-nonsense approach to education this summer,” Ms. Resch Bartz said. “We are here to work.”
Besides regular summer school, Milford's Seipelt Elementary has launched an optional Summer Reading Program.
Parents are asked to help their children twice a week for 10 to 30 minutes, said Carolynn Ficke, Seipelt's OhioReads coordinator, and the school's intervention specialist for the second grade.
The program includes exercises for increasing reading fluency and comprehension, writing, parent training and three meetings with parents throughout the sum mer. Some 120 of 648 students are signed up to participate.
“I didn't want to see (students I worked with all year) lose any skills we had built,” said Ms. Ficke, one of the program organizers.
Students returning to school after summer vacation typically lose a month of learning, according to a study by Harris Cooper, professor of psychology at the University of Missouri.
“All children lost math skills, but poor children also lost reading skills, whereas middle-class students tended to hold their own in reading,” he said.
Teachers say they spend much of the first month of school reviewing the con cepts students learned the previous year.
“There's such a long span of time between when they get out of school and when they go back to school, there's a lot of knowledge lost over that time unless it's reinforced by practice,” said Mike Flick, director of secondary programs at Xavier University.
Thus, the increase in summer homework.
“What it really does is it helps to bridge the gap between what's become known as the year-round school concept and the traditional school,” Mr. Flick said.
Frederick Douglass Elementary, a Cincinnati Public School in Walnut Hills, is converting to a year-round school starting this fall. School opens Aug. 5 and continues through June.
“It's really based on research that says the more time spent in a learning situation, the likelihood is that you would have greater student achievement,” said principal Scott Hornblower.
That's borne out by CPS' improvements through its third-grade guarantee, which requires summer school for third-graders who don't pass the reading portion of the state proficiency test, he said.
“Anytime you have more time with kids, you're going to see greater student achievement.”
In other summer programs:
• Incoming kindergarten students at Reading Community City Schools are getting an electronic version of homework.
The district was awarded Ohio's BEST Practices Award in 2001 by the Ohio Department of Education for its program Springboard Into Kindergarten.
The district spent the $20,000 award money on 100 electronic Leap Pads and books, and 100 Phonics Writing Desks to enhance phonics skills.
Parents attended a training session and borrowed the items for the summer to work with their children on early literacy skills.
Greg Hamilton, a Reading father of 5-year-old twins, Matthew and Joshua, said the Springboard program is excellent not just for children, but parents, too.
“In preschool this year, they've learned all of their letters,” Mr. Hamilton said. “I don't want them to forget that come September.”
• Middle school students at Cincinnati Country Day in Indian Hill are assigned summer math packets that count toward first-quarter grades.
“During summer, many of our students read for recreation but few of them would come in contact with rigorous math problems,” said Beth Langenbahn, sixth-grade math and geography teacher.
“As a result, we found we were spending two or so weeks at the beginning of the year getting their math thinking restarted.”
• At Grandview Elementary in Bellevue, third-grade teachers Sarah Steenken and Theresa Hayden have a vest ed interest in keeping their students' skills sharp.
The two are looping, which means they will teach the same students in fourth grade this fall.
They assembled student packets for math, science, social studies, reading and writing over the summer. They personalized each packet with a book geared to the student's reading level and interests.
“Practicing almost any skill will improve a child's academic success,” Ms. Hayden said. She's determined it's most important for kids to keep up with basic math facts, time, money, reading and writing skills.
In each student's folder, she included a self-addressed, stamped postcard that she expects each student to mail to her during the summer.
“So far, I have received six postcards in less than a month. Then, I immediately write back to the student. I think they really look forward to getting my letter.”
How parents can help summer learning
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