For 250 Pennsauken kids, school goes on through summer

Figuring out what to do over the summer break came down to two options for Jasmine Edwards, 16: a job or school.

"I was, like: Money? Education?"

Edwards turned down a job at a day-care center and decided to enroll in a summer enrichment program at Pennsauken High School to get a jump on her junior year this fall.  "I want to further my education," she said.

She is among about 250 students who will be in grades 1 through 12 this fall participating in the first summer enrichment program offered by the Camden County district. The idea is to give students a chance to get ahead — not just catch up, as at traditional summer school for students who need to make up failed classes.

While their peers are enjoying summer vacation, the students attend classes Mondays through Thursdays from 8 a.m. to noon. The free six-week program began June 26 and ends Aug. 10.

Every student spends an hour each in math, science, and language-arts classes. They can also choose between music and physical-education classes. High school student-athletes enrolled in the summer enrichment program can attend a new strength and conditioning camp.

Medina Talebi, 17, who will be a senior, believes her AP classes will boost her SAT scores and ultimately help her become a pharmacist or doctor.  Juniors are also working on college application essays.

"I will be less sluggish in the fall than I usually would be," Talebi said. "You have to get back into the groove of taking classes and waking up."

For years, Pennsauken has offered remedial summer school, but officials decided to spend about $200,000 this year for the enrichment program, which is designed to prevent so-called brain drain or summer slide while giving students something to do during the summer recess. About 70 more students are enrolled in the district's traditional summer school.

"They're enjoying it, having fun and learning," said Sandy Allen, the district's director of curriculum and instruction. "It's been amazing."

Other districts, including Camden, Haddonfield, and Philadelphia, also are offering summer school and enrichment programs this year.  Because summer school is a local decision, it is difficult to estimate how many districts offer it. In tough budget years, extras such as summer school often are the first programs eliminated.

During the summer months, students can lose two to three months of the material they learned during the school year, according to the National Summer Learning Association. The losses are even higher for low-income youth, experts say, drastically widening the achievement gap with their peers by fifth grade. Teachers often spend the first weeks of a new school year going over material covered during the previous year.

Not all summer learning has to happen in the classroom, said Zeynep Ercan, an early childhood education expert and associate dean for faculty and student affairs in the College of Education at Rowan University. Students can benefit from tasks such as performing community service, planting a garden, taking care of a sibling, practicing math problems, or picking up a hobby, she said.

"Equally important is building up brain function," said Ercan. "All of these things require intellectual engagement."

In Pennsauken, elementary and middle-school students in the enrichment program are getting instruction for the grade level they will begin in September. The high school program focuses on SAT and college prep.

Derek Tugade, 17, who will be a senior this fall, said that without the summer program, he probably "would be lazy at home." He said he would rather be productive at school. "I like to work hard."

About 25 district teachers have been hired for the summer enrichment program, Allen said. The district has about 5,000 students.

During a science class Thursday at Pennsauken High, upperclassmen were tapped to teach elementary-grade students. They huddled around lab tables in small groups, demonstrating experiments with chemical reactions.

"This is a way to build confidence," Allen said. "For some kids, that's going to be the world."

At one lab station, the younger students watched intensely as Talebi and a team donned protective eye glasses and carefully measured ingredients to make "elephant toothpaste," a fizzling and foamy reaction caused by mixing hydrogen peroxide, yeast, and liquid soap.

Across the room, Amir Abouharb, 7, a first grader, was slightly disappointed by the "genie in a bottle" experiment that sent a waft of white smoke spiraling into the air: "I thought a genie would come out."

"This is what we want to see them doing in the summer," said Melissa DeAngelis, a high school biology teacher.  "The kids were really enamored."