Buffalo News, July 29, 2004
http://www.buffalonews.com

FOCUS: EDUCATION
School days of summer

More and More Children are Vacationing in Class

By PETER SIMON, News Staff Reporter

For a growing and already sizable number of charter school students in Buffalo, summer no longer means sleeping late, settling in front of the television set or getting together with friends down the street.

Instead, summer days are spent getting up early, grabbing lunch and heading off to school.

More than 4,000 Buffalo students now attend publicly funded charter schools, and many of them spend large portions of the traditional summer vacation in class.

For example:

At the Enterprise Charter School, classes ended July 15 and start up again on Aug. 16, cutting summer break from 10 weeks to four. In addition, nearly 100 of the school's 426 pupils currently are taking part in a voluntary three-week intercession, consisting of recreational and cultural activities.

The Community Charter School, 404 Edison St., ends the school year a week later than traditional city schools and resumes classes a week earlier.

Those schedules are designed to give students extra time to learn, to keep them off the streets and to avoid "summer learning loss." "A lot of the charter schools are concentrated in urban neighborhoods and believe that a longer school year or school day is just necessary for the student population they serve," said Peter Murphy, vice president of New York Charter Schools Resource Center. "Hopefully, that will put pressure on the traditional school districts to look at the scheduling issue."

Elijah Watkins, who recently enrolled in sixth grade at Buffalo's KIPP Sankofa Charter School, has no quarrel with being in class there for three weeks in July. "I like it," he said. "We learn extra things, and when we come back, we know some of the stuff already."

KIPP Sankofa, located in the Central Park Plaza, starts the school year with three weeks of summer classes, in which there is less emphasis than usual on instruction. Instead, students get acquainted with a school culture that includes a system of merits and demerits, individual and communal responsibility and the expectation that all students will go to college.

"When they come back in September, it's not: "Who are you?' " said Uchenna Smith, the school leader. "The introductions are done and the formalities are over. It's right to work. Chapter One."

For example, social studies teacher Kush K. Bhardwaj earlier this week blended lessons on the Civil War with a heavy emphasis on discipline, teamwork and organization. His sixth-graders stood and answered questions in unison, repeated inspirational school chants and maintained a spirited dialogue with their teacher.

One student-teacher exchange went like this:

"When we need help we . . . "

"Ask."

"For every problem there is a . . . "

"Solution."

School days or school years have recently been extended in some traditional public school districts. But those changes generally are measured by hours or days rather than weeks or months, and the traditional 10-week summer break remains largely intact.

In contrast, charter schools, which are not bound by calendar restrictions contained in conventional teacher contracts, are using large portions of the summer for instruction.

Many local charter school students are from lower-income backgrounds and are struggling academically. Philip Rumore, president of the Buffalo Teachers Federation, said city school officials should reduce class sizes and hire additional reading and math specialists before focusing on summer instruction.

"It's not as much a question of extra time as it is a question of the quality of the time you have," he said. "Once you've got sufficient resources and smaller class sizes, then you talk about summer programs."

Rumore said charter school officials talk glowingly of summer sessions and other innovations, but that in many cases their test scores are low.

KIPP Sankofa combines three summer weeks with a 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. instructional schedule during the regular school year. That exposes pupils to 60 percent more instructional time than they would receive in a traditional public school.

At the Pinnacle Charter School, located at Genesee and Ash streets, classes were in session most of July. Instead of a 10-week summer vacation, Pinnacle students have monthlong breaks during December, April and August.

"Research shows that students don't lose as much (knowledge) over four weeks as they do over 10 weeks," said Heidi S. Rotella, the school's chief academic officer. "We've noticed a huge difference. They don't do what we call the one-step forward, two-step backward dance."

To be sure, traditional public schools don't simply shut down for the summer.

In Buffalo, 4,160 students in grades seven through 12 attended summer school this year. In Williamsville, the area's largest suburban district, 1,153 students attended summer classes at all grade levels.

But most of those students were taking review classes or repeating courses they failed during the regular school year.

In contrast, summer classes at many charter schools are for all students.

"We use that time to get everybody on the same page," said Smith, the school leader at KIPP Sankofa. "Their minds are active and they're hungry. We need to feed them that knowledge."

Elijah Watkins enrolled at KIPP Sankofa after encountering a series of disciplinary problems at a traditional city school. Although he said he's learning to stay on task and to follow directions, Elijah tripped up earlier this week and was sent to the office for talking back.

But he said he's eager to make the most of his new opportunity.

"We are a team and a family," he said. "The teachers are going to be hard on you because they want you to do good and get to college."

Dijonna Coleman started fifth grade at KIPP Sankofa this summer after transferring from another charter school, and said she's enjoying summer classes.

"The teachers care for us and want us to learn," she said. "They tell me I have to listen to the teacher and never act up."

Down the hall, Bhardwaj was reinforcing that message for a sixth-grader who got his homework done the previous evening even though he had to look after his younger siblings.

"Choices, decisions, consequences," Bhardwaj said. "You made the right decision, buddy."

e-mail: psimon@buffnews.com