June 29, 2004

Summer school benefits students
Townsend Communications, Brian Settle, Editor

Newton Learning, a private company that helped the Raytown School District summer school students boost their test scores last year, is conducting the district’s summer school program again this year.

Last year, Raytown students posted a 42.62% improvement in communications arts and a 41.63% improvement in mathematics. The effectiveness of the Newton program is measured by a pre-class evaluation test that is administered on the second day of the summer school session, then is conducted again on the second to last day of the class. “We are delighted to work with the Raytown C-2 administration. They are wonderful leaders and provide direction in determining which courses are important to their students and necessary to comply with Missouri’s benchmarks for learning,” said Larrie Reynolds, Ph.D., Newton Learning president.

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