Gilroy
– At-risk students, from pre-schoolers to graduating seniors,
improved their scores on reading, writing and math tests after just
20 days of instruction this summer.
The academic gains made during the intervention classes will go
far to help below-grade level students meet state proficiency
rates, but have some school officials asking how the trend can
continue.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – At-risk students, from pre-schoolers to graduating seniors, improved their scores on reading, writing and math tests after just 20 days of instruction this summer.
The academic gains made during the intervention classes will go far to help below-grade level students meet state proficiency rates, but have some school officials asking how the trend can continue.
“There is some growth that is happening with some of the kids, so at the start of the school year, their need for extended instruction, intensive instruction, doesn’t go away,” Superintendent Edwin Diaz said.
Schools must track and follow up on the 1,950 students who boost their skills during the summer months, he said, and the programs used for that intervention need to be continued into the regular school year.
“It’s amazing that over such a short period of time, we can make such improvements,” said Jaime Rosso, school board president, noting that the district as a whole has failed to keep raising test scores.
While there was growth for all students referred to summer school this year, the district says students in kindergarten through third grade did not improve as much as they should have. Many of those students ended last school year well below grade level standards. Their goal for the summer was to reach a 90 percent mastery level on a language test. If they didn’t reach that benchmark, they would start this year in the bottom two tiers of a five-tier ranking system.
Of 50 kindergartners, 62 percent were already at the mastery level at the start of summer school. By the end of the session, 68 percent reached that benchmark. In math, just under half the students were already passing the test in June. A month later, it was 68 percent.
Students in grades four through eight improved their ability to read naturally, or at a fast enough rate that they read for content rather than word by word.
“In other words, kids who do not read at a level of 100 words per minute are stuck in decoding,” said Meagen Azevedo, a teacher facilitator at Brownell Academy Middle School who was a summer school principal.
Reading ability improved at all five grade levels, and for grades four and five, which started the summer reading just under 90 words per minute, improved to 98 and 100 words per minute, respectively.
More high schoolers were meeting state standards this fall after re-taking classes they had previously failed, in subjects including reading, math, social science, biology and drivers’ education.
The amount of 247 students meeting standards in English improved from about half to about 70 percent. Where fewer than half of 141 students were passing algebra and geometry, nearly two-thirds were passing at summer’s end.
And Olivia Schaad, Gilroy Unified School District’s director of curriculum and instruction, pointed out some good news to city drivers: More students are passing drivers’ education.
