Summer School for Special Education Students in Detroit (MI)
May 12, 2010
The Detroit Public Schools officially announced they would offer expanded summer school programs for nearly 40,000 students in the district this year. While the idealistic objective is aimed at helping early and struggling learners, the reality of sum mer school and, its subsequent funding, often falls short of educational objectives other than filling seats and offering extended job opportunities for hand picked staff members. The majority of these students were given ample opportunity throughout the regular school year to fulfill their academic obligations but neglected to do so for a variety of reasons. The real beneficiaries and intended targets of a year long school program would be better suited if tailored towards special education students exclusively.
The basic premise underlying the philosophy behind summer school is that more time in the classroom necessarily translates into better student learning. In a report published online by educationnext.org, the results that support this premise are debatable, even though the article seems slanted towards encouraging a longer school year based upon a very narrow analysis done on in a small geographic area. Many arguments can be made and supported regarding both sides of the issue, depending on a wide variety of factors and input measures but the debate is beyond the scope of this article.
Instead of rewarding (or punishing) mainstream students who fail during the regular school year to accomplish educational objectives, perhaps a better and more humane attempt should be made to turn the summer months into an opportunity for the truly needy to improve social interactive skills, along with academic skills, using innovative methods like those being successfully employed by the Circle of Friends program which can be studied in detail at the website autismnetwork.org.
It is usually talented and gifted students who truly desire to spend more time in the classroom, even during the summer months where school districts have not adapted the year round schedule. Matching motivated students with special education students offer s great opportunities to both. Peer learning is already an acceptable educational norm in many arenas and paring the best and brightest with the learning disabled shows potential for favorable experiences and rewards not easily pigeonholed into statistical categories at this point.
Summer school teaching opportunities, however, are viewed as extra income potential for the majority of school districts and their representative unions. Otherwise, the extremely high competition for these limited term assignments would not be so sought after. Mainstream students, on the other hand, who are forced to attend summer classes remain a tough audience to engage and many simply feel like they are just "doing time" in order to make the grade.
Why not use funding, resources and the best qualified teachers in a district to further mentor the talented and gifted while simultaneously uplifting the potential of special education students? Field trips are easier in the summer months and the casual atmosphere that embodies all adds to a more relaxed learning environment. The alternative is often, and especially in Detroit, sweating the days out in crumbling school buildings by mostly resentful students and top notch teachers who are really just there to pad their average salary income during their final years before retirement.
The same tired solutions to timeless problems of high attrition rates are why Detroit schools remain in the sorry state they have been for so long.