Broward Schools expanding its summer school dramatically to help failing students catch up
With the number of students who’ve received at least one F in the recent grading period spiking significantly, Broward County Public Schools is expanding its summer school by at least tenfold to help boost the staggering number of children who’ve fallen behind during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although the numbers of students not making adequate academic progress touched all demographics, Black and Hispanic students, as well as students whose first language is not English, face the steepest hurdles, according to data released during a Tuesday School Board workshop to discuss the district’s ambitious summer learning program.
School officials want to use the summer sessions to see where the problems are before the fall, when all students are required to return for in-person learning. Schools across the country have been contending with learning losses brought on by the pandemic and remote learning.
“What we need to do is make sure we have the best understanding at the student-by-student level of what they’ve demonstrated and then put that in the hands of the educators at the local schools,” said Daniel Gohl, the district’s chief academic officer. “It’s very difficult for me here sitting here as one person in the central office to give a generalization, because if I could, we would fix it right away.”
Large number of students getting at least one F
The document shared at the meeting showed more than 40% of Black students in grades 6 through 12 received one or more failing grades in the third quarter grading period, up from 26% in the same period a year ago. Students received that report card on April 14.
Forty-five percent of students not fluent in English received at least one F — up from 29% in 2020.
The percentage of Hispanic students failing at least one class jumped to 36% — more than 1 in 3 — from 22% in the 2020 third quarter.
And white students getting at least one F jumped to 25 percent, up from 16 percent a year ago. The district did not break out the data for Hispanic or non-Hispanic whites and Blacks.
All of the measures were from students in grade 6-12. Broward is the nation’s sixth-largest school district.
Boys failing more than girls
Boys are struggling more than girls, according to the data, with 40% of boys in sixth through 12th grade receiving an F or more this third grading period, up from 26% in 2020. For girls, it was 31% — up from 18% during the 2020 third grading period.
The district is encouraging all students, even if they are not struggling in the same way, to attend the summer program, which it is calling the “summer experience,” rather than summer school.
“It is accelerating them, rather them remediating them. It is moving them forward in a way,” Gohl said, adding that the district has been planning the program since December when Superintendent Robert Runcie announced that almost 60,000 pupils out of the roughly 260,000 students were not meeting academic standards.
“The amount of time and extremely detailed planning and preparation for this has been tremendous,” Gohl said.
Earlier this month, the School Board approved a nearly $775,000 severance package for Runcie, who resigned after he was indicted by a statewide grand jury. He has been charged with one count of perjury related to his testimony before the jury. He has pleaded not guilty.
As of Tuesday, 35,356 students had signed up for the voluntary program, Gohl said. School officials are encouraging more students to follow their peers’ lead. Gohl said the program is designed to serve all approximately 60,000 students identified as struggling.
“We didn’t know how many we would have want to come given personal circumstances and everything else. We are already, to use an approximate number, above anything we’ve done in a generation,” Gohl said.
In years past, the number of students attending Broward Schools’ summer programs was in the 3,500 to 4,500 range.
“And, so we are pleased with 35,000. We believe we can and should support more and we’re trying to push the message out,” Gohl said. “We may need to get our teachers involved as our sales people.”
Teachers signing up to teach during summer
So far, about 4,500 teachers have signed up to work during the summer program, which is not mandatory, the district’s public information officer said.
“I’m really amazed at the number of teachers we have signed up for summer school and I think it’s a real testament to how much our teachers care about our kids,” said School Board Member Sarah Leonardi, who is a teacher.
Anna Fusco, president of the Broward Teachers Union, said teachers who work during the summer will earn their hourly wage.
Teachers not working summer school receive their last paycheck June 26, and their pay resumes the last week of August, Fusco said.
The main challenge, according to Gohl, is that the majority of the teachers who’ve signed up to work this summer teach high school, but the greatest need is for elementary education. Gohl said if the situation doesn’t change, the district will still be able to teach these children.
“We can use secondary certified teachers to support our elementary summer program. But, we want to make sure that we have as many people familiar with the developmental age of our students as possible,” he said. “And, so we are reopening and inviting more elementary teachers to apply.”
Broward Schools’ summer program dates
The program for kindergarten through 12th grades will be held at 95 of the district’s 240 schools. It is scheduled to run from June 21 through July 29. Start times vary for the four-hour days from 7:30 a.m., 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. depending on the school. Classes are Monday through Thursday.
The last day of the regular school year is June 9. Students return for the fall semester Aug. 18.
Part of the summer session is a program to “reclaim and elevate” the district’s 33 “most fragile” schools, said Fabian Cone, director of school performance and accountability. This program will include students in third through fifth grade and 178 specially selected teachers who will identify ways of improving these schools.
“Teachers who have a track record of academic success. They have to have a track record of retention, and they have to have a track record of engagement,” Cone said.
Programs for younger and special needs students
There are also programs for younger children preparing for kindergarten, said Diane Eagan, director of Exceptional Learning and Student Supports. The voluntary pre-kindergarten, Head Start and Pre-K Summer Experience — designed for children who will turn 5 by Sept. 1 — will run from June 21 through Aug. 3 at the children’s local schools.
The district is also instituting a program for children with disabilities.
Children attending all the programs will likely be required to wear facial coverings while inside, unless recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention change, school officials said.
While school districts usually promote children based on their performance on the annual Florida State Assessment tests, the Florida Department of Education waived that rule this year because learning was disrupted over the course of the pandemic. Students still took the FSA this year, though, and the results will be used to assess students in the fall.
“That was one of the things we had in our legislative platform to ask that the results not be used punitively against students and teachers, but to be used to analyze where we are, for the state to use it to see how they need to give us additional funding to address our needs,” School Board Chair Rosalind Osgood said.
Information on the Broward Schools summer program
Parents can learn more about the summer sessions at www.browardschools.com/summer2021
This story was originally published May 25, 2021 at 8:41 PM with the headline "Broward Schools expanding its summer school dramatically to help failing students catch up."
