Subpar results from remedial summer-school programming at Arlington Public Schools have left leaders in search of new strategies.
“We weren’t seeing significant [academic] growth,” Superintendent Francisco Durán said during a program recap at the Jan. 16 School Board meeting.
School leaders used assessment-test results at the start of the 2024-25 school year to compare the standing of students who took remedial summer-school courses with those who were eligible to do so, but did not.
It is not a perfect way to measure the impact of the four-week summer-school program, said Kimberley Graves, chief of school support for the school district. But it is the closest way to get an “apples to apples, oranges to oranges” comparison, she said.
Graves was accompanied in making the presentation by Wendy Pilch and Chris Willmore, the school district’s directors of elementary and secondary education.
School Board member Zuraya Tapia-Hadley asked whether summer-school programming needed to be extended to have the desired positive impact. Graves responded that the challenge was finding staff for the four-week period, let alone longer.
At the same time, Graves acknowledged that a longer stretch might be appropriate.
Extended learning time “yields significant growth,” she said. “When it’s extremely targeted and focused … you’re going to see those results.”
School Board Chair Mary Kadera was appreciative that school leaders were being open about the shortcomings.
“We’re approaching the problem, I think, in the right way,” she said. “We as a system have to be willing to experiment. Experiments are not always going to yield the result we all hope for.”
“If it’s not working, we have to be willing to sunset some things and move on and try other stuff,” Kadera added.
