Robbinsville – As Graham County Schools heads into the final stretch of the school year, Accountability Director Kevin White has discussed the district’s plans for summer school.
At the Graham County Board of Education meeting Tuesday, White said all levels of summer school would be held at approximately the same time, starting on June 7 and running to the end of July, with students having the week of July 4 off.
The summer school will be for both students needing to retake state tests and students needing to retake classes failed.
“We’re basically combining several different summer schools and trying to make one big package out of all of it,” White said.
He said students would take pre and post assessments, as required by the state of North Carolina. Due to the summer school program running into July – but the accountability year ending in June – the board was required to approve the summer retesting plan.
The measure passed unanimously.
“The new accountability year will start in July, and for the summer retesting program, basically the students that don’t make a proficient score the first time around can come into summer school and they can retake the (end of grade) after remediation,” White said.
The testing will be given before the end of the summer school term after approximately 10 days, or 50 instructional hours.
“I know that we will probably test a little later than that, but I would rather err on the side of caution there,” White said.
Students from grades 3-8 will be able to retest in math and science only during summer school. White said that this was due to the new reading test released this year and results not yet being released.
“We may not find out what our reading scores are until probably August or September,” White said.
However, retesting will be available on the state’s third grade Read to Achieve (RTA) test. The test is given to ensure North Carolina third graders go to fourth grade reading at grade level or above. The Read to Achieve retests will take place in July, after the new accountability year starts.
Although the number of students to be enrolled in summer school was not discussed, Robbinsville High School Principal David Matheson and other district administrators have repeatedly expressed concerns regarding the number of students failing courses during the COVID-19 pandemic and virtual learning.
But despite the concerns, Robbinsville Elementary School Principal Jaime Hooper did share some good academic news during her update. She said the school had seen significant improvement among some of its struggling students due to academic interventions.
Out of 100 percent of Robbinsville Elementary sixth graders in reading intervention, 46 percent are now reading at or above grade level. Of 100 percent of kindergarteners receiving reading intervention, 39 percent are now at benchmark.
“In full disclosure, I did pick two grade levels that had a good trend line,” Hooper said. “I wish they all looked like that. Some are steeper than others, but as a general rule, we are looking at it and digging into that data all the time.”