Record number in summer school June 12, 2001 BY ROSALIND ROSSI EDUCATION REPORTER A record number of students will attend mandatory summer school this year--more than 50,000--in a continuing crackdown against social promotion that outgoing Chicago Schools Chief Paul Vallas helped spread nationwide. This year's numbers are higher than in past years, Vallas said, because the system once again toughened the test cutoff for skipping summer school. However, Vallas estimated that under a new board policy, about 40 percent of the third-, sixth- and eighth-graders attending mandatory summer classes will probably not face retention at summer's end. Those students, who are close to the promotion cutoff, will bypass summer school exit tests as long as they produce a C average or better this summer. In addition, said Chief of School Operations Blondean Davis, more than 3,600 eighth-graders were given "conditional graduations" this year, meaning they crossed the graduation stage contingent on attending summer school. Those eighth-graders scored in the lower seventh-grade range--at least a 7.2 in reading and math--but did not hit the 8.0 promotion cutoff on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills given last month. An 8.8, or the eighth month of eighth grade, is considered grade level. This year, test promotion standards were raised at each of the benchmark grades, to 3.0 in third, 6.0 in sixth and 8.0 in eighth. But the wiggle room in the new policy has drastically reduced complaints from parents, who in previous years could not understand how their eighth-graders seemed to win solid classroom grades but could not graduate because they were only a few months shy of test cutoffs, said Julie Woestehoff, executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education. In third grade this year, 11,355 students, or 43 percent of those tested, must attend summer school, up from nearly 40 percent last year, Davis said. In sixth grade, 9,905, or nearly 37 percent, will attend summer classes, up from 27.6 percent last year. And in eighth grade, 7,794 must attend summer school, or 35.2 percent, down from last year's 33.5 percent. Also, in an ongoing attempt to catch flagging students in their early years, 10,335 low-achieving first-graders and 10,335 second-graders will attend summer classes, Davis said. Plus, 3,330 summer slots have been set aside for struggling first- and second-grade bilingual students. -- This is the CPS Science Teacher List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
