Committee will evaluate Cape's summer schools

About 570 students attended Cape Girardeau public schools' summer school this year, up 34 students compared to last year. But inside that figure is a 129-student decrease at the high school level and an increase of 183 in the elementary grades.

To help increase secondary summer school enrollment but keep the mission intact, assistant superintendent for academic services Sherry Copeland plans to form a summer school action research committee. Plans are to include administrators, teacher leaders -- such as department chairmen -- and teachers who have taught summer school. The panel likely will start meeting in about a month and convene during a two-month period.

The panel will evaluate the summer school program to figure out the best way to serve students and increase enrollment. Recommendations will be brought to the district's cabinet, composed of the superintendent, two assistant superintendents and the director of special services, then presented to the administrative council, which includes all administrators and directors. The information then would be presented to the school board.

Copeland said there may be several reasons secondary summer school saw lower attendance this year.

"The reasons are as varied as there are students," she said. "We need to figure out how to entice them into summer school, because it benefits them."

Copeland noted the district still has to offer remedial courses for credit recovery or helping improve reading for at-risk children. "We have to do that in summer school," Copeland said, adding that, ultimately, the district wants all students to learn and become lifelong learners.

In recent years, Cape Girardeau schools have struggled with graduation rates. But this year, Copeland said it "increased dramatically" overall, from 59.3 percent in 2012 to 73.9 percent in 2013, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education annual performance report.

At Monday's school board meeting, Central High School principal Mike Cowan said "close to 10" students graduated from summer school this past summer.

Getting more secondary students in summer school should boost those rates, Copeland said, but she noted summer school also has younger children enrolled.

"… Typically, children who are just shy of graduating, they are focused on going to summer school. Younger children think they've got time. But again, it goes back to what we're offering. We need to make sure we address the needs of all students," she said.

Administrators talked this week about offering math and reading programs, not for credit recovery, and the district is also considering enrichment activities, such as online courses where students can earn credit to get ahead, and more language courses through Rosetta Stone, a language software tool.

Technology instructional specialist Ron Farrow said Rosetta Stone challenges each student at their level and starts with conversation, as opposed to word memorization. The district has instructors for Spanish, French and Mandarin Chinese, but uses Rosetta Stone for German.

Farrow said the software will enable the district to offer more languages.

Odyssey, an online curriculum implemented last year, could be offered to help students acquire more credits. "This could open up the opportunity for them to take more high school classes," or courses from the Alternative Education Center or Southeastern Missouri State University.

"If you go to a … four-year university, most universities require that you have two courses of language before you start. This would be a way of not only fulfilling that need, but in the summer, they could take a course in Spanish and could actually progress further in language by not only increasing their credits, but also their content knowledge," Copeland said.

Summer school for seventh through 12th grades starts as soon as school is out. The elementary program for kindergarten through sixth grade is a jump start summer school held the last week of June and first couple weeks of August.

"In elementary, the benefits have been great. They're ready to start school," Cope-land said. She added the students' retention level is better when work is done right before school starts, rather than right after.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639

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301 N. Clark Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO