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Summer offerings OK’d for schools
City district awaits state’s academic plan
By HAROLD GWIN
YOUNGSTOWN
The state Academic Distress Commission overseeing the city school district’s efforts to emerge from state-rated academic emergency has given school administrators permission to launch three new summer-school programs.
The commission is in the process of drafting its academic-recovery plan for the district but thought that shouldn’t delay the implementation of summer-school programs that can benefit students immediately.
“They won’t conflict with our plan. They can only be a benefit,” said Debra Mettee, commission chairman.
All three programs have been created to assist specific groups of students who are having academic difficulties.
All are also designed to expand into full-year sessions this fall, but Mettee said that approval will have to await next month’s development of the commission’s recovery plan to make sure they fit into the overall effort.
The commission did retain the right of approval of staffing for the summer-school programs, which will run for four weeks.
The programs are:
Pathways to Advancement: Aimed at high- failure-rate students in seventh through ninth grade who are failing two or more subjects. The focus will be on core-subject material with the emphasis not on remediation but on accelerated learning to get those students back up to speed academically.
University Project Learning Center: Focuses on expanding opportunities for students having difficulty learning in the traditional classroom setting, particularly those needing behavioral intervention.
Twilight: Focuses on ninth-graders between age 18 and 20 who have earned less than five hours of credit toward graduation. This will be a recovery program aimed at getting students to stay in school and graduate. They will be given individual academic and assessment plans. Unlike the other daytime programs, Twilight will meet from 4 to 8 p.m. weekdays.