Data shows most Roanoke Rapids students didn't finish summer school
Summer school this year was a way to bridge the learning loss gap many students experienced during the pandemic.
Posted — Updated"We wanted to invite as many kids as possible because we just wanted to give kids the opportunity to be back in person," said Roanoke Rapids Graded School District Assistant Superintendent Juliana Thompson.
Numbers from this year’s summer school session in RRGSD showed that, of the students invited, half of them enrolled in the program.
Of those who enrolled, only half of them actually showed up – and the numbers fell even further as the session went on.
Out of the 286 elementary school students who enrolled, 119 came on the first day of summer school on June 3. Eight weeks later, on July 29, that number had dropped to 84 students.
Of 140 middle school students invited, 74 students showed up, with a regular attendance of around 61 students.
For high school, 121 student were invited, and 44 of them came on the first day.
By the end of the program on July 29, only 18 of the 121 invited students came to class.
"What we found is that those numbers are very consistent with summer school participation in the past," Thompson said.
District officials said that, even before the pandemic, around 50 percent of invited students would typically enroll in summer school.
But this year’s session also brought new challenges with it.
"Summer school was longer this year," Thompson said. "Families already had vacations planned, and some of them were affected by quarantines, either personally or in the school."
In a twist, Thompson also said that, at the high school level this year, the district actually wanted the number of students to fall over the course of summer school.
"The way that the legislation for this year was written was that a high school student who finished out course recovery would not have to stay for the entire time," Thompson said. "They could leave as soon as they finished their courses that they needed, so the attrition there was absolutely expected."
With the difficulties getting and keeping students in the classroom overall, district officials said they consider this year’s summer school session a success.
"Absolutely, very successful," Thompson said. "For any of our kids who came, I think it was a great benefit. I’m so proud of our teachers."
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