Saturday, July 16, 2005

Schools end summer session with student raffles, rewards
By Megan Means, Tribune staff writer

Summer school is out, and students are free until Aug. 24.
Officials with Columbia Public Schools still have some numbers to crunch to assess the summer program’s success. This was the second year the district hired Newton Learning to operate a full-day program that’s free to all students.
Organizers still have to tally up how many students had attendance records good enough to earn Visa gift cards worth $50 to $100, which will be mailed to students later. For the first time, students can elect to send the money directly to the Ronald McDonald House.

Later this fall, standardized test scores will help determine whether students made gains and managed to avoid summer brain drain. School administrators were encouraged by last year’s results, but the data weren’t conclusive.

"We would like to see results, but it’s real difficult to see those results in such a short length of time," Assistant Superintendent Cheryl Cozette said. "We believe we’re providing that strong foundation on which we can build."

Attendance hovered around 5,000 this summer. There were 5,700 students enrolled on the first day, but Cozette said she thinks most of the attrition resulted from "family situations." For example, students moved or signed up knowing that other summer plans would keep them from attending the full session.

Last year’s final summer enrollment was 5,470. About 18 percent of students who had originally signed up left the program. Complaints arose about disorganized bus routes, the length of the school day, curriculum content, conflicts with other school programs and student behavior at summer school sites that mixed younger and older students.

"I think we made a lot of progress towards getting all of those issues resolved," Cozette said.

Paxton Keeley Elementary School Principal Elaine Hassemer said she saw a difference this summer at her school, which served 550 students in kindergarten through third grade. She said that transportation went smoothly and that the days were more organized.

Planners also worked to make the lessons more like the regular school curriculum and strengthened language arts offerings.

For many students, the attendance prizes remained the highlight of summer school, but others said they enjoyed their classes, too.

Rahnecia Caruthers, 10, and her brother Devonte Grayson, 11, each went to classes at Lange Middle School. They had a bet that they could stick it out and not miss a day, said their mother, Sharon Caruthers. It ended in a draw because they each missed one day.

Rahnecia said the promise of a $100 gift card got her to come but said she had fun, too. "Today was fun because we got to play with geodes," she said Thursday. "Every day we had fun building stuff."

Parent Tracey Miller said she liked the program last year, too, even though "it was a little crazy." She said that her 9-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter learned a lot but that the promise of $100 was a big factor.

"Both of them qualified," she said. "The oldest one wants to go shopping, of course."

In addition to gift cards, each summer school site had a budget for special prizes throughout the session. At Lange, those prizes included iPod music players and Nintendo game sets. Paxton Keeley awarded two $25 gift certificates each day to reward students for good behavior or achievement.

All the prizes are designed to keep students excited about coming to summer school. High attendance rates boost the district’s average daily attendance, yielding more state education funding. Last year’s program was Columbia’s largest ever, the district netting about $2 million.

The state education formula changed in the spring, however, eliminating the attendance bonus.

Still, Deputy Superintendent Jacque Cowherd estimated 2004 summer school attendance could increase the district’s aid by about $7 million under the new formula, compared with about $1.3 million without it.