Comments on: PROOF POINTS: Summer school programs too short and not popular enough to reverse pandemic learning loss, researchers say

By: Honorable David Tokofsky

Honorable David Tokofsky — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 21:38:22 +0000

Mr Krause hit a nail on the head of the core lack of thought in many places of public education regarding summer sessions. I taught two sessions of summer school outside of the public district for 14 days or hours for each class. One class was current events and 3 one hour classes were Mock Trials with Constitutional Rights Foundation materials. In just 14 hours, the students from public, private, parochial, middle and high schools excelled because they wanted to engage in the learning. In 14 hours they understood trials, trial organization and objections including hearsay. They could identify in current events key global conflicts and what is at stake in each. Why not stop the soft bigotry of low expectations in summer sessions.

By: DuWayne Krause

DuWayne Krause — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 17:00:05 +0000

From my experience, with summer school, it is no surprise that there is little academic gain. The idea that kids could make up, in 4-6 weeks of half days, what they failed to learn in a semester, or year, of regular school teaching is totally absurd. When I have taught summer school, I have been quite demanding. As a result, my math students displayed considerable improvement. On the other hand, the districts, I have worked for, have not even had the goal of improving student skills. Their goal (not expressly stated) was merely to go through the motions of education so that they could justify putting credits on transcripts and move students “down the line.”