Pandemic still a factor in summer school enrollment, school leaders say, but also a chance for students to get ahead

McHenry County school districts are seeing more students than ever enrolling in summer school, and while the pandemic continues to play a factor, district administrators said, the high attendance speaks to expanded opportunities overall during the summer season.

With longer hours each day, the summer curriculum offers students a chance to complete coursework in a compressed amount of time – weeks instead of months – and involve focusing on a few subjects instead of juggling half a dozen or more, McHenry High School Summer School Principal Sean Sterner said.

Some expanded programing for this summer in McHenry includes new “get-ahead” EL course opportunities for English learners and more electives such as health or government, Sterner said.

Lingering affects from the pandemic include some surprising results such as increased participation in drivers’ education, said Patrick Podgorski, the assistant principal at Woodstock High School and District 200 summer school principal.

“During the pandemic, a lot of students couldn’t get behind the wheel,” Podgorski said. “So they’re playing catchup, and learning to drive with your community high school is so much more cost-effective.”

This year in Woodstock, there was a 33% increase in summer student drivers over past years, and the program was maxed out to capacity, Podgorski said.

McHenry’s District 158 was one of several local school districts that were able to hold two sessions, in June and July, for summer school programming, with more than 900 registrants, including 200 incoming freshmen, Sterner said.

Two-thirds of the registrants are either in “get ahead” programs, which allow greater flexibility during the regular school year or drivers ed, Sterner said.

A lot of the programming is now divided between students seeking remedial help in order to graduate, and those who are looking to get ahead or even graduate early, Sterner said.

“When you think of summer school you immediately think of students who failed a course,” Sterner said. “That is an aspect. But it’s not the majority of the summer offerings. That’s something that’s changed over the last several years, something we are trying to do in McHenry.”

Sterner, who said he taught summer school for many years before becoming a principal, said he “always enjoyed it” as a way to dive deeper into material and get to know students, and that people would be surprised how many students feel the same way.

“We kind of consider summer school to be like the regular school year,” Sterner said, adding that in McHenry most of the regular school services are available during the summer, including social workers and bilingual assistants on staff.

For incoming freshmen, summer work provides an opportunity to feel better prepared for high school and learn how academics function at that level, Sterner said.

Podgorski, who oversees high school level summer programming for District 200 in Woodstock, said the district’s “jumpstart” programming for freshmen was a mix between supporting them when they enter high school, as well as providing catch-up work in core subjects such as English and math.

In District 200, participation in summer programs actually has been down slightly since the pandemic begin, in part because the pandemic necessitated so much remedial work within the regular school year itself, Podgorski said.

“By summer, everyone has burnout with screen time,” Podgorski said. “Students have been wanting to go back to normalcy, with summer vacations and all that.”

About 10-15% of the student population was participating in summer school courses this year, Podgorski said, adding that the breakdown between remediation or getting ahead depended heavily on the course itself.

While among older students, the pandemic learning loss may have been tied to specific coursework, younger learners were affected in broader ways, and at least some summer programming and resources for them focuses on their social and emotional needs, said Rachel Keesey, who oversaw the Extended School Year program for Prairie Grove School District 46.

“The stress of the pandemic on families has been evidence in our students as well,” Keesey said. “It’s increasingly clear the pandemic impacted children not just in terms of academic skills, but communication, independent function, and social development.”

This was the second summer the district offered social work support within ESY programming, Keesey said, and this summer the district is once again participating in hands-on field trips to places such as the Nature Center at Veteran’s Acres and the Volo Bog.

The district uses “theme-based” programs for younger students, Keesey said, to make learning more engaging and fun, even while focusing on reinforcing skills.

“We recognize that during summer attending school is not always the most desirable thing for a student to do,” Keesey said. “But a majority of our students who attend say they enjoy being with their peers and teachers, and are engaged.”