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Summer School Later In The Summer? by Grace E. Merritt, Hartford Courant Summer school in August? Hoping to make summer school more effective, a Stamford education leader wants to push back the start of summer school from the beginning of summer to the end of it. Stamford board of education President Polly Rauh believes that waiting to start summer school until several weeks before the start of school in the fall would have a bigger impact on student learning and reduce summer learning loss. "Students would get out of school at the end of the year, get some rest, travel, or whatever, then come back five or six weeks before school starts," Rauh said. "It would just blend right in as a continuation of their skills and learning, and you don't have the loss you normally get from down time." If Stamford adopts such a policy, it would be the first in Connecticut to delay summer school, though a handful of towns and cities elsewhere in the country have tried it. Pittsburgh schools introduced the delayed schedule last summer as part of a major overhaul of its summer school program — with dramatic results. Enrollment in Pittsburgh's middle school program alone rose 400 percent, and attendance went from 50 percent to 70 percent, said Cate Reed, executive director of student support services for Pittsburgh public schools. It is harder to assess academic gains, but preliminary data show that those summer school students outperforrned their non-attending peers 85 percent of the time, Reed said. "We think it definitely helped," Reed said. The National Summer Learning Association said the delayed summer school approach could be useful, but it hasn't been studied much so far. "The research on summer learning loss is clear that long summer breaks lead to losses in math and reading skill," said Jeff Smink, vice president of policy for the association. "As a result, it could make sense to start summer programs later in the summer, so students can start the school year without a long break." Summer school programs typically start in late June or early July and run for five or six weeks. In Stamford, the proposal is only an idea at this point, but Rauh plans to propose it to the full school board this fall. She estimates it would have no cost impact and could help close the city's academic achievement gap. Any schedule change would have to be negotiated with the Stamford teachers union and introduced with plenty of lead time so that teachers, students and parents could plan their vacations and work schedules accordingly, she said. Representatives from the Stamford Education Association could not be reached for comment.
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