A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

Taking Responsibility for Ending Social Promotion: A Guide for Educators and State and Local Leaders — May 1999

Extending Learning Time

Along with ending the practice of social promotion we must provide extra help for children after school and in the summer so that we don't just identify children as failures, but instead say, "We're going to give you more help until you succeed."

—President Clinton, July 1998

By intervening early in a child's school career and targeting those students who need intensive and tailored assistance, extended learning programs can help prepare students academically and developmentally to move to the next grade. Like other strategies in this guide, federal resources such as Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act can be used to support efforts to extend learning time. Currently, Title I helps to fund over 13,000 extended-time instructional programs across the nation.

Extending learning time for students includes strategies such as establishing quality after-school and summer school programs, and moving toward a year-round school schedule.

21st Century Community Learning Centers

The 21st Century Community Learning Centers program enables schools to provide expanded learning opportunities for children after school, on weekends, and during the summer in a safe, drug-free, and supervised environment. The program is greatly expanding in 1999, as a result of receiving $200 million following a recent report by the Departments of Education and Justice on the effectiveness of after-school programs and a Charles Stewart Mott Foundation survey that showed the public's strong desire to make high-quality after-school programs available to all children.

The centers offer homework assistance, intensive tutoring in basic skills, counseling to prevent drug use and violence, and enrichment in core academic subjects as well as opportunities to participate in recreational activities, the arts, technology education programs, and services for children and youth with disabilities. The centers are supported through school-community partnerships that include public and nonprofit agencies and organizations, local businesses, and educational entities.

The Bayfield Public School System in Wisconsin, for example, has identified cultural isolation, alcohol and drug use, and single-parent families as the main risk factors that affect the achievement of its students. The district's 21st Century Community Learning Center contains elements of integrated education, health, social service, recreational, and cultural programs; literacy education; and parenting skills education.

Establish after-school programs

Children's participation in high-quality learning environments that build on the regular school day, such as after-school extended learning programs, can improve their academic and social development. Research has shown that students who participate in after-school programs exhibit higher achievement in reading, math, and other subjects compared with their own past performance and with the performance of comparable students who did not participate in such a program.⁽³⁹⁾

Programs that include tutoring and activities related to reading and writing, in particular, can increase reading achievement for young children. After-school programs give students an opportunity to practice the skills acquired during the school hours through interaction with attentive and well-trained adults.

Project Read in New York City, for example, provides intensive reading instruction to over 100,000 students in grades 1-3 after school as well as during the school day. According to a recent study by the district, third graders who participated in the after-school program experienced significant gains in achievement.
New Haven has begun implementing voluntary after-school and Saturday school literacy programs at six elementary schools for second, third, and fourth graders. During the Saturday academies, students participate in 45 minute reading, writing, and math classes based on the state assessment. The district's afterschool reading centers are based on the Comer model, developed by Dr. James Comer at Yale University, and will include participation by certified reading teachers, paraprofessionals and parents.
Chicago's Lighthouse program provides students with an hour of academic assistance and one hour of recreation after school. In 1998 the program served 175,000 students in Chicago, including all students who failed to meet the district's promotion standards after participating in Summer Bridge.

Summer Bridge Program:
Chicago Public Schools

In August 1996, Chicago adopted a rigorous student promotion policy that requires underachieving students in grades 3, 6, 8, and 9 to complete a summer school program before being promoted to the next grade. Students who do not meet designated minimum scores on the district's standardized tests or who fail reading or math must successfully complete a six or seven week summer remediation program. All ninth graders who miss more than 20 days of school or fail to earn the required core credits also are required to attend the summer-school programs. Students who fail the summer programs are held back. Eighth graders over the age of 15 who fail to reach grade level after the summer program are assigned to an alternative school for overage students. After one semester, they can retake the test to see whether they are eligible to reenroll in their high school. In 1998, about 60,000 students attended Summer Bridge classes.

Participation in a strong after-school program provides numerous additional benefits to children at risk of school failure. As children gain greater confidence in their academic abilities and more interest in school through participation in after-school programs, their school attendance improves. Furthermore, at those after-school programs offering homework assistance, children are more likely to complete their homework and turn in better work. Overall, children in after-school programs display better work habits than their peers.

Provide summer school for students not meeting standards

For students who do not meet standards during the school year, a high-quality summer school program is an essential opportunity. When standards for promotion begin to be enforced, the results can be sobering. Low test scores may galvanize interest in schools, but they also create numerous problems for the public schools and teachers. Yet, a recent survey conducted by the Department of Education indicated that only about one third of districts in the nation have mandatory summer school for students facing retention.⁽⁴⁰⁾

Most districts working to end social promotion have found that summer school is an absolutely necessary component of efforts to help students who do not make the grade. For example:

The Summer Literacy Program in Denver, which began in 1997, is a four-week summer program for students in grades 3, 5, and 8. Third-graders who score one or more years below grade level in reading on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills must attend the program, as do fifth and eighth graders who score two or more years below grade level. Third-grade classes during the summer program do not exceed 20 students, and every room has both a teacher and paraprofessional. Fifth and eighth grade classes do not exceed 15 students. Sessions run for four hours every day for third graders and three hours for all other students. Instruction follows the district's literacy plan, which consists of direct instruction in reading skills as well as guided reading and writing, cooperative reading, and independent reading. In 1998, about 2,200 students completed the program.
The Long Beach (California) Unified School District has instituted programs to reduce the retention rate at grades 3 and 9. Third-graders who score two years below grade level, as determined by a combination of assessments, must attend a five-week summer program. The district retests students at the end of the program to determine their placement for the following year. Students who still score two or more years below grade level must repeat the third grade. Students who score one to two years below grade level are promoted to the fourth grade, where they receive extra tutoring. In 1997, the first year of the program, 55 percent of participating students were promoted to fourth grade after raising their reading achievement to grade level.

Summer STARS: D.C. Public Schools

In 1998, Washington, D.C., Superintendent Arlene Ackerman instituted Summer STARS (Students and Teachers Achieving Results and Success), a massive summer school program for students who perform poorly on the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT-9). Although the six-week summer program is open to all D.C. students, students in grades 1-5 who score below the basic level on the SAT-9 are required to attend the summer program, which is designed to improve their basic reading and math skills. Students who score at the basic level on the SAT-9 are encouraged to attend the summer program. At the end of the program, teachers evaluate students' progress and make recommendations regarding promotion. Eighth-grade students who score below the basic level on the SAT-9 also must attend the summer school program every year until they reach the basic level or pass the district's high school proficiency test. In its first year, over 24,000 students attended summer school.

The summer school program runs every day of the week from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. To successfully complete the program, students may not miss more than three sessions. The curriculum consists of two hours of reading and two hours of math instruction in classrooms with just 15 students. The program also provides enrichment activities for students, including trips to the Smithsonian museums and parks.

Move toward year-round schooling

In a 1994 report, the National Education Commission on Time and Learning recommended that schools stay open longer during the day and for more days during the year. Year-round schools substitute a few short breaks throughout the year for the traditional long summer break. This schedule gives children more learning time and helps prevent some of the loss of ground that takes place in the summer months. Teachers may spend less time reviewing previously taught material and students can gain up to six weeks of schooling beyond the traditional school year. Many districts also see year-round schooling as a way to control overcrowding that may arise from efforts to reduce class sizes.

Nationwide, almost 2,000 public and private schools enroll more than 1.4 million students in year-round schools. Most students still attend school for about 180 days per year, but the year is stretched over a 12-month period with shorter breaks.⁽⁴¹⁾

Year-Round Schooling:
Socorro Independent School District, El Paso, Texas

The Socorro Independent School District in El Paso considered year-round education in part because the traditional school year could not accommodate the growing school-age population in the district. A task force made up of students, parents, teachers, administrators, and community leaders studied the options--split sessions, portable classrooms, higher student-teacher ratios, and year-round schooling--and decided that year-round education would offer better academic opportunities for students. Shorter vacations reduce the loss of learning and the district would offer educational programs to underachieving students between sessions of schooling.

Between 1997 and 1998 the proportion of Socorro students passing the reading, writing, and mathematics portion of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills has improved at every grade level. Over 80 percent of students in grades 4, 8, and 10 met Texas's standards for reading and at least 70 percent of students across the grade levels met the state standard for mathematics.

—from Prisoners of Time: Schools and Programs Making Time Work

Notes:

39. U.S. Department of Education, 1998.

40. U.S. Department of Education, 1998.

41. Education Week, 1998.
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