Merced summer school enrollment soars as students, parents seek to fill learning gaps
Merced-area schools have faced a massive surge in summer school enrollment this year, due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on classroom learning.
Case in point, Merced Union High School District doubled its enrollment, having an estimated 3,394 students in summer school this year compared to around 1,500 students last year, said Constantino Aguilar, MUHSD’s assistant superintendent of educational services.
Similarly, Merced City School District had 2,000 students enrolled this year compared to 1,000 students last year, according to Doug Collins, deputy superintendent of MCSD.
“Part of that (surge) is obviously related to the pandemic where we are trying to mitigate any learning loss that has occurred to the best degree that we can,” said Collins.
“The overarching goal of summer school was to make sure students were able to recover credit,” said Aguilar. “The second goal was to get students re-engaged with school community — teachers, athletics, clubs. Number three was addressing social and emotional learning.”
Nathan Quevedo, media and communications manager for Merced County Office of Education, said districts countywide are likely experiencing similar summer school enrollment increases.
Shiwani Pino, a parent of two children attending summer school at Fremont Elementary, said she feared they were falling behind after schools cut back on in-person learning. That motivated her to send them to summer school.
Plus, she was eager to get them back into a normal social situation, after many months of remote learning. “They lost out a lot during the pandemic and missed hanging out with their friends — the social and emotional part of it,” she said.
Concerns widespread
Pino isn’t alone in her fear of her kids falling behind. According to a recent survey by the Public Policy Institute of California, about 83% of parents said children are falling behind academically during the pandemic. Plus, 64% said students are falling behind “by a lot.”
It was that concern that partly prompted teachers from both districts to step up and provide instruction during summer school this year.
Teaching during this unprecedented time means instructors can help students catch up academically while also providing social and emotional support. There was a higher demand this year for summer school teachers because of the increased enrollment numbers, Aguilar and Collins said.
In previous years, MUHSD typically had one school serving as the main site for summer school. This year each school site — Atwater, Livingston, Merced, Golden Valley, Buhach Colony and El Capitan — held its own summer school sessions in order to provide more one-on-one attention to students.
MUHSD’s summer school went from June 7 to July 2. MCSD had two sessions parents could pick from, participating in the four week session from June 7 to July 2 or the eight week session from June 7 to July 30.
The two sessions were offered with regard to whether parents felt their children needed longer summer learning sessions to make up for lost learning.
MCSD’s summer academies are open to all grades. They’re held at Chenoweth Elementary, Fremont Elementary, Rivera Elementary, Sheehy Elementary, and Clark Preschool.
The summer academies seek to address social and emotional learning, and provide hands-on experiences for the children in all subjects.
Both districts said that filling in the learning gaps isn’t something that can happen by the end of summer, but they’ll work on addressing those gaps as long as the pandemic is in the picture.
“There’s a very good chance that the pandemic has widened that gap,” Collins said. “We’re committed to closing those achievement gaps for all children, we’re not going to back off of it. We’re going to keep attacking that issue and addressing if we’re going to get the results we need.”
“It’s going to take this summer, all of next year, it’s going to take us a full year to really get back to where we were pre-pandemic,” Aguilar said.
Kay Rouse, a 7th grade language arts and social studies teacher at Hoover Middle School, taught 6th grade students transitioning into 7th grade this summer. She shared similar thoughts, stating the primary issue on the surface was the lack of academic progress.
“I don’t think anybody went backwards, they just didn’t go forward the way we wanted them to,” Rouse said. “It takes a little time, you can’t say ‘by the end of the summer they’ll be back to where they should be,’ but I think they’re making good strides toward feeling good about going to school.”
And there’s still hope to continue filling those gaps as long as teachers “present (material) in a way where it’s appealing to them, I think we can get caught up” said John Perry, an English teacher and summer school teacher for all grades at El Capitan.
“It’s been a different year, but it’s been a good experience. I call COVID lemons and we made some lemonade out of it,” Perry said.
“I’d hope as a district, as a school, we take those lemons that we’ve been given and continue to make lemonade. We got some amazing, resilient kids out here that are still striving and going to higher levels.”
This story was originally published July 7, 2021 at 4:00 AM.