It's the main thrust behind the school district's effort to help struggling students during the school year instead of waiting until summer school, often the most common way schools play catch-up. The district will provide bus transportation for the students and will even feed them an after-school snack. Principals said it might be easier to help students catch up now, rather than wait and try to do it over the summer. Summer school teachers rarely get detailed information about their students, and can only glean so much from test scores and homework samples.
Teachers also say it's impossible to cram an entire course into a four-week summer school session.
You don't get to do that during summer school. Teachers will be paid 90 percent of their hourly rate to work the extra hours. What isn't known at this point is how many students are going to take up the district's offer. Altogether, about 1,500 students have been asked to participate, but schools can't force them to attend. Weightman Middle School last week asked 250 struggling students to attend the sessions, but so far only 58 have committed to attend.