Schools throughout the state are hoping that an ounce of intervention will be worth a pound of cure.
Along with outlawing social promotion, California's 1998 legislation mandates funding for schools wishing to offer intervention and supplementary programs for students at risk of retention. Such programs include mandatory summer school, intersession school, Saturday school, before- and after-school tutoring, and special intervention classes that do not take students away from core curriculum.
"We have intervention programs galore in Palm Springs," says Genny Smith, president of the Palm Springs Teachers Association (PSTA). "If students are at risk of failing, we have intervention programs in reading and math scheduled before and after school along with mandatory summer school. Our intention is to bring students up to grade level. Of course it's costly. The state reimbursement ($3.53 per student for each hour of supplemental instruction) is not enough. Some of it is coming from our general fund. It's expensive, but worth it for students to be successful."
Elizabeth Garcia helps her students with a math problem.
The Los Angeles Unified School District's intervention programs include summer school and intersession school for year-round students. Some intersession programs, however, were held before the end of the school year due to overcrowding, and could not help students catch up on things that were taught toward the end of the year.
In all, the district spent $93 million for intervention programs, says Robinson.
"These programs have a tremendous cost, and the state needs to pay for this. In addition to what was given to us from the state for intervention programs, money came from our general fund. If the district has to take money from other programs that help children, it becomes a problem."
Fresno is close to opening a new Intersession School for year-round K-6 students at risk of retention. The half-day school will operate year-round to accommodate four off-track student groups. The goal is to have 17 permanent teachers trained in literacy and math to work with a maximum of 425 students each session and a 25-to-1 teaching ratio, says Fresno Teachers Association (FTA) President Larry Moore.
Rigoberto Rivera and Daisy Villanueva discuss a reading assignment with Francesca Toberman in Huntington Beach.
"It's a good idea to have teachers trained to help these students. Many times it is difficult to find teachers for summer school or intersession programs, so you may end up hiring teachers who are not necessarily experts in reading. And kids are usually retained because they can't read." To deal with the problem, FTA is negotiating with the district to get it to pay teachers their per diem rate rather than the lower summer school salary schedule.
Because of a teacher shortage and low pay, the San Juan Unified School District's summer school intervention program "didn't do what it was supposed to do," says Nancy Waltz, president of the San Juan Teachers Association. "It worked in some schools, but in others there were problems. There was supposed to be a small teacher-student ratio. But because there was a lack of teachers, students were packed into classrooms. Teachers were disheartened to see they had a roster of 36 kids for six weeks. How do you do intervention for 36 kids at a time? What was the point?"
Teachers didn't want to work summer school because the district chose not to pay them their regular per diem rate for the half-day program. The district underpaid teachers, says Waltz, because it did not receive enough state money to adequately fund the intervention program for students at risk of retention.
"You can do an intervention program well with qualified teachers who are given their regular pay for a very difficult job," says Waltz. "Unfortunately, that didn't happen here."
"I felt like the district was asking for miracles in six weeks," says Joe Horyza, a summer school teacher for the district who taught a second- and third-grade combination class in the intervention program. "In a regular class, you may have a few special-needs kids. In these classes, they all have special needs. It was certainly a lot more challenging than teaching a regular class."
Still, he saw many of the children make progress. "I saw growth in their reading rates. Some of the older kids gained a little more confidence."
The SJTA member was flabbergasted to learn that the final decision regarding some students would be left up to him. "I'm thinking, 'Wait a minute: Another teacher has had this child for an entire year and the recommendation for retention or promotion will be left up to the summer school teacher - without consulting with the regular teacher?' In a few cases, it was really asking too much."
Horyza and his wife, who also taught summer school, did recommend a few students for retention despite their misgivings.
Roosevelt Middle School counselor Herb Wong explains what's in store for Oakland students if they don't shape up.
Summer school intervention programs are labeled "mandatory," but really aren't, say educators. Under the law, parents can't be forced to send their children to summer school. And telling students that they must attend summer school or else repeat a grade has been a meaningless threat in some districts.
In Oakland, for example, mandatory summer school went into effect during the 1998-99 school year. Nonetheless, the district promoted 7,000 students who skipped the summer session.
During the 1999-2000 school year, 14,000 students - a quarter of Oakland's 53,000 students - were told to attend mandatory summer school. Only 5,000 students actually attended, and the district only held back a total of 3,752 students.
"There didn't seem to be any consequences for not going to summer school," admits Romina Carrillo, assistant superintendent for the district.
Herb Wong, a counselor at Roosevelt Middle School and a member of the Oakland Education Association, says there is no incentive for students to attend so-called mandatory summer school. "Summer school intervention programs historically attract those who believe the district will truly retain them," says Wong. "And you can't force parents to send kids to summer school."
Even for those who go, it may be too little too late, adds Wong. "I don't believe you can teach enough in six weeks to make up for 180 days of school. Hour for hour, you cannot deliver enough instruction to make up for lost time."
Other teachers take a different view. "We didn't bring them up to grade level in one summer, but there was progress in that direction," says Sue Williams, a member of the Associated Pomona Teachers who has been involved with the district's promotion and retention policies.
"We trained teachers on reading interventions. Summer school classes with a 20-to-1 ratio were held for four hours a day. We saw some improvement in most of the students. Very few were held back.
"Our philosophy is that unless you offer some kind of remediation and support, mass retention is not beneficial to children or the system," says Williams. "We look at how we can help them improve their academics, rather than punish them for not succeeding."
