Summer School Letter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind if the school can’t “fill” the summer school classes, they will systematically go down lists of kids in certain grades. At our school they were inviting kids in AAP and also promoting the “summer school” as a fun summer learning environment (program). Op, you have a tutor, you recognize there “could”be an issue in one subject. Please don’t let this ruin anything fun for your child or family this summer. Have fun and go about your summer plans.

I am one of the posters who said we got the letter every year and turned it down. This is exactly how it was promoted. A fun learning summer program. My kid pass advanced some elementary SOLs and took honors classes in middle school. He still got the letter despite never failing a class.

[Anonymous]

FCPS wants summer schools seats filled for the federal funds they will get. Do some kids need summer school yes, does every kid no. But it’s pay by the body not pay by the need.

Same reason schools don’t want money to follow the child to charter schools. From the administration’s standpoint children in seats equates to dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind if the school can’t “fill” the summer school classes, they will systematically go down lists of kids in certain grades. At our school they were inviting kids in AAP and also promoting the “summer school” as a fun summer learning environment (program). Op, you have a tutor, you recognize there “could”be an issue in one subject. Please don’t let this ruin anything fun for your child or family this summer. Have fun and go about your summer plans.

I am one of the posters who said we got the letter every year and turned it down. This is exactly how it was promoted. A fun learning summer program. My kid pass advanced some elementary SOLs and took honors classes in middle school. He still got the letter despite never failing a class.

It would but strange to send an advanced kid to summer school to be in a class with such low kids who can barely read. How would that even work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They wouldn’t know in January. The first quarter is team building and assessments. The second quarter is finally when new learning really kicks in, but we are still in Q2 in January. No grade could discern who is most in need for summer at that point.

Wasting an entire quarter on team building and assessments is absurd.

We need baseline assessments to judge progress against for the rest of the year. I truly don’t understand how you think we can measure a child’s growth if we don’t know where they begin.

A test takes a school period. A comprehensive test for all subjects should take less than a school day. What's going on the remaining >44 days?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind if the school can’t “fill” the summer school classes, they will systematically go down lists of kids in certain grades. At our school they were inviting kids in AAP and also promoting the “summer school” as a fun summer learning environment (program). Op, you have a tutor, you recognize there “could”be an issue in one subject. Please don’t let this ruin anything fun for your child or family this summer. Have fun and go about your summer plans.

I am one of the posters who said we got the letter every year and turned it down. This is exactly how it was promoted. A fun learning summer program. My kid pass advanced some elementary SOLs and took honors classes in middle school. He still got the letter despite never failing a class.

I suspect you are in a high-SES school. We are in a low-SES school and my mixed race (half-white, half-asian) child who has failed her SOLs two years in a row has never been offered a spot in summer school even though lower income hispanic and middle eastern friends who are doing great in school attend. I know exactly why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They wouldn’t know in January. The first quarter is team building and assessments. The second quarter is finally when new learning really kicks in, but we are still in Q2 in January. No grade could discern who is most in need for summer at that point.

Wasting an entire quarter on team building and assessments is absurd.

We need baseline assessments to judge progress against for the rest of the year. I truly don’t understand how you think we can measure a child’s growth if we don’t know where they begin.

A test takes a school period. A comprehensive test for all subjects should take less than a school day. What's going on the remaining >44 days?

The first quarter is not all team building and assessing. New learning happens in quarter one.

ES Teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS wants summer schools seats filled for the federal funds they will get. Do some kids need summer school yes, does every kid no. But it’s pay by the body not pay by the need.

Same reason schools don’t want money to follow the child to charter schools. From the administration’s standpoint children in seats equates to dollars.

And why if lots of kids left to private schools, public schools would suffer.

[Anonymous]

Why not use the remaining 3 weeks of school, where there's notoriously "nothing happens" except watching movies, and re-teach subject areas?

[Anonymous]

What is MTSS process? What does it even stand for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not use the remaining 3 weeks of school, where there's notoriously "nothing happens" except watching movies, and re-teach subject areas?

I agree with this - the weeks after the SOL, put the kids that scored lowest in a classroom and give them intense remedial training. The other kids can do the basic stuff they always do. Also - stop with the movies in school. That is the worst waste of time I can imagine. Even if you let the kids sit and talk or color on a blank sheet of paper - better use of time than a mindless movie.

[Anonymous]

I **wish** my kid could go to summer school. He did not pass his SOLs in any subject and has documented learning challenges. His grades however, are As and Bs because we work our butts off with tutoring and homework. I was told he didn’t qualify.

[Anonymous]

They can’t make the recommendation until the MTSS process has concluded and it’s been documented that multiple interventions have not been successful and gaps in knowledge still persist.

WHY is this the first a parent is hearing about it? The summer school letter comes home and it's the first indication of a problem (I mean beyond not being an A student ... but is B/C so horrible?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do these come so late? When most working parents have already had to pay for camps for their kids? Do they think kids will just be sitting around all summer? Camps fill up so fast that I book mine latest March. Last year my daughter got the invitation but I'd already shelled out over a thousand dollars for summer camps - nonrefundable.

Not every kid goes to camp. They can’t make the recommendation until the MTSS process has concluded and it’s been documented that multiple interventions have not been successful and gaps in knowledge still persist. I understand your frustration but there has to be enough data to show that the child is consistently not meeting benchmarks and remains at a place of mastery that will make the next year too challenging.

My son get invited often and we skip sometimes. It is not very good. Sorry to all the teachers. Long bus rides, only three week so teachers barley get to know the kids. I am not sure how much my son learns. We are skipping this year.

It is very frustrating to get these notes so late, beyond frustrating. I work and can’t sit around for FCPS to determine my kid needs it when he needs it often but not every year. I came take the risk of no care. And I think summer camps also are good,

Why are you apologizing. You made your choice, and teachers understand, we just need you to know you can’t expect miracles in our end when the gaps persist because you don’t value summer school. Parents love to hold OUR feet to the fire and conveniently give themselves all the grace to let academics slide when it works for them. If you choose camps over remediation and then are understanding when we can’t get your son to jump multiple percentile ranges to read on grade level next school year, we have no problems.

+1 from a parent. Everyone attacks FCPS for not filling gaps and then you have people turning down and complaining about free summer school for kids identified as needing it .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

They can’t make the recommendation until the MTSS process has concluded and it’s been documented that multiple interventions have not been successful and gaps in knowledge still persist.

WHY is this the first a parent is hearing about it? The summer school letter comes home and it's the first indication of a problem (I mean beyond not being an A student ... but is B/C so horrible?)

A child does not need to go through MTSS to be invited to summer school. The student in my class who last received an invitation was never brought up in MTSS, passed both SOL tests (3rd grade) and is in level 3 AAP. Someone just showed up one day last week with a packet to send home to the parents. They are working their way down the list as others decline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS wants summer schools seats filled for the federal funds they will get. Do some kids need summer school yes, does every kid no. But it’s pay by the body not pay by the need.

Same reason schools don’t want money to follow the child to charter schools. From the administration’s standpoint children in seats equates to dollars.

And why if lots of kids left to private schools, public schools would suffer.

In a number of states the tax dollars follow the child so the public school receives less funding. Currently not the case in Virginia.