Online Summer School Sees Some Successes; Improvements Needed

completed its first all-online summer school program with good reviews and improved report cards for most students, according to district officials, but improvements are still needed.

Lorie Reitz, district director, secondary curriculum, Instructional Support Services, provided an overview of this year’s summer school program at the Aug. 11 regular board meeting.

“We did everything online,” Reitz said.

As the summer session kicked off, students dispersed to real classrooms to meet their teachers, but then it was back to online via home computers. A total of 14 teachers participated in online summer school. Courses included English, social studies, math, science and physical education.

The majority of students earned five credits toward college or improved their D grades to make coursework acceptable for college.

Overall, 113 students improved D grads, 379 earned five credits, 70 earned 10 credits and five earned 15 credits. Of the remainder, 117 withdrew, 173 did not complete coursework and one failed.

Some students improved grades considerably, with 26 percent receiving As, 36 percent receiving Bs and 27 percent receiving Cs.

The program, which attracted a total of 868 students, still has bugs to be worked out, including a possible reduction in class sizes and a request to streamline the registration process. One recommendation is to limit the number of students online at once to 200, so teachers can provide better attention to each individual.

Students seemed to take to online education quickly and some found it to be a much better way to learn, Reitz said. Most facets of the program went well and drew compliments from parents and teachers, she added.

Teachers worked Monday through Thursday during the summer session, and each had a laptop computer to provide live help to students. Plato Learning Inc., Bloomington, Minn., provided coursework and support for the online summer program.

To ensure that only the student enrolled in summer school participated in unit tests, and did not receive any help, several measures were taken. Students took unit tests at the district learning center. And teachers had to unlock the test before it would appear on the student’s computer.

When the test was completed, it was locked up and could not be brought up on the computer again.

The district is in the process of receiving feedback from the Lake Elsinore Teacher’s Association about this year’s summer school session.