Wake County Schools

Some gains, but mostly the same for students who completed Wake summer school

Slowed student progress during the COVID-19 pandemic prompted North Carolina schools to invite hundreds of thousands of K-12 students "at-risk" of not progressing to the next grade level to attend summer school.

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By
Emily Walkenhorst
, WRAL education reporter
CARY, N.C. — Hundreds of Wake County students made gains in reading or math during their summer school program, while most of the 35,000 students invited to summer school never attended.
Summer school performance this year was like most summers in Wake County, according to documents released by the Wake County Public School System on Friday.
But this summer was also unlike any others. Slowed student progress during the COVID-19 pandemic prompted North Carolina schools to invite hundreds of thousands of K-12 students “at-risk” of not progressing to the next grade level to attend summer school. Normally, just tens of thousands of kindergarten through 2nd graders are invited. Usually, most students don’t attend, and most students don’t end up testing at grade level by the end.
Summer camp outcomes haven’t been released on a state-wide level yet, but a few have reported, in response to questions from WRAL News, relatively low attendance.

The documents were released Friday in the agenda for Monday's Wake County Board of Education Student Achievement Committee meeting. District officials will present summer school results to the board and the summer school programs that have yet to finish.

Most of the 115 summer camps have wrapped up, except for those at some year-round schools. Earlier this week, the Wake County Public School System paused its summer program for those students, set to end during a track-out period later this fall.
The decision was met with disappointment from some parents, but he district cited a shortage of bus drivers, food service workers, teacher and substitutes.
How Wake students did

In Wake County, about 18% of kindergarten through 8th grade students scored higher on their iReady math post-tests than their pre-tests. But 752 of those students — nearly all of them — had scored below grade level on their pre-tests.

Three quarters of students (about 3,000) tested about the same, and about 300 students scored lower on their post-tests.

Of all kindergarten through eighth grade students who completed summer school, 88% had not passed their iReady math tests at the start of the summer.

Still, the district reported growth in one month of summer school at a relatively high rate, compared to the full 2018-19 school year.

In reading, 78% of nearly 700 1st through 3rd graders who completed summer school did not pass their iStation reading tests and the beginning of the summer.

But by the end of the summer, 50 of those students ended up passing their reading tests, bringing the percentage of those didn’t pass down to about 71%.

High school students did not take tests at the beginning or end of summer. But Wake County reported 134 of summer students graduated.

About 7,900 high school students attended summer school, but the total number of credits earned was 3,920.

Among 3,200 survey respondents — mostly students — the district received high approval ratings, with nine in 10 saying they believed summer camp helped and they enjoyed summer camp.

Education leaders across the country and in Wake County stressed that summer school was too short to see major gains in performance and test scores likely would go up too much. At the same time, they stressed that summer school would be important for keeping kids learning and preventing “summer slide.”

Research has shown little impact from summer schools in North Carolina and elsewhere on student achievement or testing prior to the pandemic.

Researchers found effective summer programs outside of the Tar Heel State that targeted specific reading skills, used small groups and were regularly attended by the students who enrolled.

Low attendance

In the latest Read to Achieve summer school report, from 2018, less than half of the 31,000 children invited to the camps enrolled in them. About a quarter of attendees read proficiently by the end of the summer, representing only about one of every 10 students whom educators said needed the camps’ intervention.

In the Wake County Public School System, Read to Achieve summer camp enrollment has hovered around half of those eligible.

It was less than that this summer.

All schools offered free meals and transportation to students. In the past, experts have said the schedule of some summer programs can’t make it harder for parents to send their children.

While Wake County initially reported a relatively high acceptance rate among the 35,000 students it invited to attend its summer school, thousands fewer ended up attending at the high school level. Overall, less than half of those invited attended, just about 15,000.

The school district — along with others across the state — made extra pushes to enroll their biggest summer programs yet.

And because the district invited far more students than usual, it was still record turnout, prompting the district to offer employee bonuses and ramp up recruiting efforts just to staff the programs.
Possible spring summer school

The Wake County Public School System is looking at resuming the summer program in the spring. That’s permissible under the state law passed earlier this year that required every district to offer summer school to all students.

About a quarter of the district’s nearly 200 schools are year-round. They are mostly elementary schools and some middle schools.

As of Friday, year-round students had completed either 10 or 18 of the 30 days of summer school, depending on their school calendar.

Staffing problems have prompted the district to plan to deputize central office staff to work in unfilled positions beginning Oct. 11.

Spokeswoman Lisa Luten said they might work as teachers, substitute teachers, lunchroom support staff, bus duty or other positions.

But they won’t be available to resume summer school, she said.

“That is not a viable solution to this problem, as those employees are needed to support regular school operations,” Luten told WRAL News.

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