ISLLC Standard 1: A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by the school community 

Achieving the School Vision through the Summer School Program 

Statement of Purpose:  Utilizing the summer school program to obtain the most benefit for all students, either by passing their classes and/or the retake of the GCRCT. 

Questions the study answers:

1)      What is the best way to schedule the summer school program, utilizing the data, to ensure the success of all students in the program?

2)      What is the best way to utilize the resources, both in personnel and school environment, to ensure student success in summer school?

3)      How can the school’s vision help summer school students strive to be successful?

 Situation:  IC is one of four middle schools in the county and is hosting the middle school summer school program for two of the four middle schools.  AP Jazzy is responsible for obtaining a list of students from all three grade levels from the other school.  This list will include all students that need to attend summer school and/or must retake one or two portions of the GCRCT.  The use of student information and test data is crucial to the scheduling of both the students and the teachers involved in teaching summer school, as well as the best use of the facilities.
            All teachers are offered the opportunity to teach summer school through an application process.  This year, there were 22 teachers that were used for the summer school positions and these teachers came from four different schools.  After looking at the data to determine needs for the classes, the teachers were utilized in their certificate areas with nine teachers being utilized for GCRCT Remediation classes only (which were 8^th graders), eight teachers were utilized for Academic Recovery classes only (6^th – 8^th graders), three teachers were utilized for both GCRCT and Academic Recovery, and two teachers were allotted for special education students.  Besides the teachers, the summer school staff included on clerical worker, three paraprofessionals, one media specialist, one school resource officer, and one administrator.
            Scheduling the students for their classes began with a meeting with the special education department chairpersons to discuss exceptionalities that would need to be addressed.  Dr. Jazzy then used that information and each school’s list to develop collaborative classes to create the least restrictive environment for the special needs students.  Another technique to increase student achievement was to create smaller classes for the GCRCT Remediation program so that the teachers could work with students in small groups, meaning that the classes were 15 students or less per class.
            There were 92 students needing to attend summer school for coursework, meaning they failed either 2 or 3 subjects during the school year, or in other words, academic recovery.  These students must have scored a minimum of a 62 in the failed subjects to be eligible to attend summer school and earn enough credit to bring the “yearly average” to a passing grade.  The breakdown of these students is as follows. 

 Students attending the summer school program for coursework are charged $150 per course to attend summer school in the county.   There is also a strict attendance policy; if a student misses more than two classes during the summer school program, they are removed from the program and will be retained in the appropriate grade. 
            The summer school program also encompasses the 8^th grade students that did not pass the Reading/Language Arts, Math or both portions of the GCRCT.  These students had the opportunity to attend summer school free of charge to prepare for the re-take of the GCRCT in the appropriate area.  These students had the opportunity to attend only the course for the section of the test that they need to re-take (or both if they did not meet both sections).  Students are not required to attend the summer school courses to re-take the test.  The number of 8^th grade students needing to attend summer school and the breakdown of coursework versus GCRCT remediation is as follows. 

 Communication between the schools and the parents was of the utmost importance.  Each school was required to send a letter to the parents of the need for their child to attend summer school and/or re-take the GCRCT.  The letter that was sent home notified the parents of the consequences if the student did not attend summer school (retention or the need to attend the re-take of the GCRCT).  If the parent of an 8^th grade student needing to re-take the GCRCT did not register the child for the summer school program, they were sent a certified letter giving them instructions to call the school and register the child for the appropriate GCRCT test.
              Bus routes were provided for the students attending the summer school program.  One of the problems for the transportation, however, was that the buses would stop in generalized locations, not pick the students up at their driveway.  Another problem was that the buses would run in the morning and in the afternoon, but if a student only needed to attend one session (and the parents did not want to pay for the other session), then they would need to provide their own transportation mid-day.

 Questions:
1,  What is the best way to schedule the summer school program, utilizing the data, to ensure the success of all students in the program?
            The best way to schedule the students is to begin by utilized the data to establish the classes that are needed.  This year’s summer school programs provided for smaller classes to provide for more individual attention.  By meeting with the special education department chairs, opportunities for special education students to be mainstreamed were provided.  The classwork was facilitated through the use of the New Century program in the computer lab to differentiate instruction and offer them tutoring on their individual level.

 2.  What is the best way to utilize the resources, both in personnel and school environment, to ensure student success in summer school?
            One aspect of looking at this question was how to minimize the number of students that would be coming and going in the middle of the day.  An attempt was made to try to schedule students who were in need of only one of the courses in the morning to reduce the number of students who would be coming to school in the middle of the day.  Another aspect was in allowing teacher to teach in their certification area so that they were able to work comfortably with the students.  With the summer school program scheduled for Dr. Jazzy’s school, she was very familiar with the resources already available in the school from two computer labs utilizing the New Century program, allowing access to the media center through the use of the media specialist, and all materials that were available.  Dr. Jazzy also met with the teachers before the program started and had them create common teaching units and assessments to be utilized throughout the summer school program.

 3.  How can the school’s vision help summer school students strive to be successful?
           In a school where the vision is “to work together to provide a safe motivating environment that meets the needs of all learners”, it is imperative for the students to understand that it is the school’s responsibility to provide a safe place where teachers care enough to work with all students at their level.  To maintain the vision, the administrator needs to look at the data, the number of summer school students, their subject areas, and plan a program that aligns with the school improvement plan. In the smaller summer school classes, students can often achieve more than in the regular academic classes.  In addition to class instruction, students utilized a computer program that is available in all middle schools, New Century.  Students must complete an assessment test to determine their strengths and weaknesses and then provides them with a path of lessons, beginning at their current level and moving them toward their grade level.  The skills learned through these lessons provide them with skills that will be needed in either the next grade or to pass the GCRCT.  Since the student works on the computer at their individual level, each student is focused on their lessons and is successful at a higher rate. 

            My rating for this administrator would be "Developing".  AP Jazzy worked for three days trying to create the best schedule for all involved and continued to work hard once the schedules were created to place students in the best environment, as well as to keep them on task and in the program (including both behavior and attendance issues).  AP Jazzy was a new administrator during this past school year and I observed that she has many strengths, especially in the areas of organization and communication with parents, but I can see some areas, such as communication with teachers, where she can improve.