Saturday, June 21, 2003

New York Firm Is Providing Summer School

Fayette R-III school district has contracted with Newton Learning to provide its 2003 summer school program. It is one of 68 Missouri school districts to reach similar agreements with the New York-based company that specializes in offering summer and after school educational curricula.

Newton has increased the number of Missouri summer school students it educates by 58%, with almost 60,000 students enrolled in its present programs as compared to almost 38,000 students that enrolled in its 2002 courses.

Teachers and administrators from the school districts that retain Newton Learning are hired for the summer school programs, and the company furnishes all the training and teaching materials. Newton incurs all the expense associated with the program, and school districts pay the company with existing state funds.

The courses are designed to focus on the skills that the local district and the state have identified as required benchmarks for learning. The effectiveness of the Newton program is measured by a pre-class evaluation test that is administered on the second day of the class, then is conducted again on the second to last day of the class.

“During the 2002 summer session, the 38,000 Missouri students participating in our programs realized a mean improvement level between the pre-curriculum and post curriculum examinations of 46.75 percent in communication arts (reading, writing, and language arts) and a 63.1 percent gain in mathematics,” according to Clay Shwab, chief operating officer.