Summer school cuts could weaken the limited lifeline

04-02-2010

By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego

As San Diego Unified shortens its school year, it's also weighing whether to pare back on summer school to help close an estimated $87 million deficit, joining other school systems in the county and across California where school will be out -- totally out -- for thousands of students this summer. Cutting summer school could worsen academic backsliding during the summer, a phenomenon called summer learning loss, which hits poorer children hardest. If elementary or middle summer school is cut, it could force more failing students to repeat a grade, a hotly debated and potentially harmful practice. And doing so would weaken a lifeline for struggling teens. San Diego Unified usually invites all failing high schoolers and thousands of younger students in grades 1, 3 and 8 with low grades or test scores to summer school; it used stimulus money to expand it to fifth and sixth graders last year. (more...)

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Summer school cuts could weaken the limited lifeline

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