Thousands of Alaska students are starting summer school this month.
It’s the Anchorage School District’s largest summer program ever.
After a year of learning during a pandemic, administrators say summer school will start to address some of the learning loss they know is there. And they hope it will help rebuild kids’ relationship to school.
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Kenneth Hemenway is one of this year’s summer school teachers.
He’s an English teacher at South High School during the normal school year. Last week, he had about 20 high school students from across the district in his morning class for the start of the summer program.
Hemenway said he appreciates having the extra time with students this year, because of the unique impacts the pandemic had on each one: Some did well in online classes, and others didn’t.
“There are going to be a lot of kids that lacked where they should be as far as proficiency and where they ended up last year,” he said. “And that’s a gap that we got to fill.”
It’s a big push. Normally, the district offers just a single summer program to about 750 students, mostly high schoolers, who need to make up failed classes or want to get ahead.
The district has also offered virtual learning opportunities to about 1,000 students who want to take courses to get ahead, and has had small grant-funded elementary programs in the past.
But this year, at least 5,300 students — 3,500 elementary and 1,800 secondary — are enrolled in summer school for everything from credit recovery to enrichment to tutoring. Another 1,800 are taking classes online.
And that’s just the first block. The district will have another summer school block in July.
The summer program is free for students, and the district provides transportation for those in elementary school. Students also get free breakfast and lunch.
This year’s summer school is all about addressing the learning loss students experienced during the pandemic and getting them ready for fall classes, said Marty Lang, the district’s secondary director.
Standardized testing has been complicated and inconsistent over the past year, providing a murky picture of where students currently are academically.
Getting a grasp on who needed additional help began toward the end of the school year when students were able to return to some in-person learning. While grades and assessments were strong indicators, teachers interactions with students largely informed which students were recommended to attend summer school.
Lang said the goals of summer school for these students is two-fold.
“To address some of the learning loss [and] get students comfortable back in the classroom for those who haven’t returned yet to that in person environment, and really to re-engage and get kids excited in those content areas about learning as well.”
Lisa Mounds-Craft is serving as a high school principal for the summer program. She said the program gives teachers and students more face-to-face time to gauge where learning is at, but also to build relationships and dive deeper into the challenges of the past year.
“The circumstances around these Fs that we’re seeing are all really tied to the pandemic,” Mounds-Craft said. “Being at home for a whole year, on your own and trying to navigate Zooms, and not having the internet, or not having food and oversleeping, or having to share one computer with three or four brothers and sisters and parents who are working from home. So this summer school is different. Kids are coming from a different place.”
Mounds-Craft, a former school counselor, said she’s spent these early days simply having conversations with students and getting to know them.
More than anything she wants summer school to be a safe, caring, and relaxing environment where students want to come and feel comfortable in. There’s donuts and apple juice in the hallways that students can grab. Support staff play oldies over the speakers.
She wants it to be a place where students can open up.
Dawn Anderson serves as one of the school DJs in the morning, playing throwback ’90s jams. She’s also a science teacher, and she agrees with this year’s approach to summer school.
“I feel like we all just need a giant hug. We all just need a little attention right now. We all need a little bit of something to keep us going,” Anderson said. “I think it’s all going to be okay. Big deep breath. Big hug for everyone. We’ll be on our way.”
