Summer School Education Program, 2016-2017. Research Educational Program Report
Author: Houston Independent School District (HISD), Department of Research and Accountability
Date: 2018-01-10
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Summer Schools,Acceleration (Education),Repetition,Required Courses,Remedial Instruction,English Language Learners,Elementary Secondary Education,Program Effectiveness,Student Promotion,Kindergarten,Grade 1,Grade 2,Grade 3,Grade 4,Grade 5,Grade 6,Grade 7,Grade 8,High School Students,Enrollment,Academic Persistence,Grade 9,Grade 10,Grade 11,Grade 12,Racial Differences,Ethnicity,Grade Repetition,Special Education,Academic Standards

Each year, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) offers a summer education program designed to assist students with a variety of instructional needs. Centrally coordinated summer school programs in 2017 included accelerated instruction for State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) and STAAR End-of-Course (EOC) re-testers; bilingual or English as Second Language (ESL) classes for English-language learners (ELL); credit accrual/recovery for students needing to graduate; Extended School Year (ESY) services; Promotion/Retention classes; and other school-based programs. The summer education program supports HISD's Strategic Direction Core Initiative 3: Rigorous Instructional Standards and Supports. This report shows student enrollment and outcomes for students who were eligible for and attended summer school in 2017. Key findings include: (1) A total of 42,877 students attended the HISD 2017 Summer School program in grades 1-12; (2) In grades 1-8, 19,916 students attended the HISD 2017 Summer School program based on being retained at the end of Spring 2017; (3) Following 2017 summer school, 84 percent of STAAR Grade 5 re-testers were promoted and 90 percent of STAAR Grade 8 re-testers were promoted; (4) Of the 2017 summer courses taken by high school students (grades 9-12), 96 percent were in core content areas. Four percent were from other course selections such as industry classes, physical education, and foreign language courses; and (5) Of the five Of the five State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) and STAAR End-of-Course (STAAR\EOC) exams administered following the 2017 summer school program, U.S. History had the largest proportion of students meet the student standard (41 percent). English I had the smallest proportion of students meet the student standard (14 percent), followed by English II (17 percent). Recommendations for more useful data collection include the following: (1) For this report, the 2017 summer school attendees in grades 9-12 are only identified as having attended a minimum of one day of summer school. There is no indication of the reason students attended the summer school program. In future reports, it would be useful to have information that indicates why the student attended the summer school program such as (a) did not meet the STAAR/EOC student standard; (b) did not meet the course grades standard, or (c) student enrichment. This would provide future researchers additional information to discuss the relationship between the reason for attending summer school and achievement on the summer administration of the STAAR/EOC examinations; (2) It is recommended that the district promote the implementation of the new universal screener to increase the number of Lexile scores so future researchers have a more accurate picture of the relationship between student reading proficiency and summer school accomplishment; and (3) In an effort to document any gains as a result of summer instruction, it is recommended that the universal screener be administered near the end of the summer session to all students that attend a summer school program.