The changing tide of summer school

WASL grad requirement altering how staff, students look at summer school

COLUMBIA BASIN — Seventeen-year-old Sam Aldaas is one of the lucky ones.

He passed the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test as a sophomore in high school.

Now he is preparing to head into his junior year by taking summer school classes at Moses Lake High School to earn additional credits.

"I want to stay caught up," he said. "I don't want to fail."

Aldaas is one of 130 students enrolled in summer school at MLHS.

That is twice the number of students normally enrolled for high school summer school, said MLHS assistant principal Josh Meek.

Twenty of those are there to receive WASL remediation and the remainder for credit retrieval.

Two years ago there was no summer school program at MLHS due to lack of enrollment.

The numbers indicate to Meek several trends that are changing the mindset about summer school, especially as 2008 approaches and students are required to pass the WASL in order to graduate.

"I think you're finding more kids taking more responsibility for their graduation requirements and staying on top of it," Meek said.

In the seven years Meek has been in education he has seen summer school programs place less emphasis on skill enhancement.

Cheri Nickel is a language arts teacher in the Soap Lake School District and had six students in summer school class as of Thursday.

They are students who came close to passing the WASL and will be retaking it in August.

"As this sets in even more and becomes more and more important to the kids, our classes here are going to double too," Nickel said of the 2008 WASL graduation requirement. "I think the kids that are in the WASL classes are feeling the strain knowing they have to pass it."

Nickel said this is the first time reading, writing and math have been offered for summer school. Classes offered previously in the summer were credit retrieval classes to help students stay on target for graduation.

Getting students prepared at the middle school level for the WASL has also become a focal point for discussion within school districts.

Soap Lake Middle School teacher Pat Allen said he does not foresee having much of an increase in the number of students attending summer school at his building.

"We feel if we can do the basics we can do enough so there won't be intense pressure (later on)," he said.

From Ephrata High School three students are enrolled in WASL remediation.

"I think (they're) still having a hard time figuring out that they have to pass that test," said Charlotte Throgmorton, vice principal at Sage Hills High School and summer school supervisor. "We just don't have the kids interested in coming."