Atlanta Public Schools May Require Attendance At Summer School

ATLANTA, GA — Atlanta Public Schools' presented a draft version of its academic recovery and school-based intervention plan at its school board meeting Monday, designed to make up for the learning loss from last March's school closures due to the coronavirus pandemic — and for students attending summer school, mandatory attendance could be included.

The plan will begin in June and continue over two years, according to Chief Academic Officer Yolonda Brown. Beginning with the district's most vulnerable students, the plan includes a Summer Academic Recovery Academy with in-person and virtual options, as well as the district's previously-established power-up programming and the implementation of a districtwide school-based intervention block.

"As we know, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on all of our students; however, the impact has often been greater for some of our most vulnerable students, inclusive of the unfinished learning that occurred as we transitioned to virtual learning back in March of 2020," Brown said at the meeting. "Additionally, we understand that many of our students have experienced some level of learning loss, or what is now referred to as 'the COVID-19 slide.'"

The COVID-19 slide refers to the learning loss, or slide, that students across the nation experienced as a result of the pandemic forcing schools to close for in-person learning last spring, according to the Northwest Evaluation Association, or NWEA. The NWEA is a research-based, not-for-profit organization that creates academic assessments used by more than 9,500 schools, districts and education agencies in 145 countries.

To mitigate this learning gap, the optional Summer Academic Recovery Academy will be paired with power-up programming — which was launched in 2018 — with a focus on literacy and math, according to the district's draft plan. In contrast to the 2018-19 summer program, the academy will run on a full-day school schedule and will take place every weekday for four weeks in the summer from June 2021 to June 2023.

Brown emphasized that APS is still exploring additional options as to how the Summer Academic Recovery Academy may evolve in the future, but the district projects an estimated 15,000 elementary school students, 5,000 middle school students and 8,000 high school students to enroll in this summer's academy.

Brown said the district is looking at the possibility to make attendance mandatory for summer academy students, as well as looking at extending the summer academy through July.

"At this time, we are strongly encouraging daily student attendance for the full four weeks, but we are working closely with our legal department to explore options for mandatory student attendance," Brown said.

Additionally, beginning this August through May 2024, APS is planning to implement school-based intervention blocks at a minimum of three days per week — lasting 30-40 minutes for elementary students and one class period for middle and high school students — of dedicated time to focus extra time on literacy and math. APS will use a comprehensive assessment system to monitor student progress as well as a mental health universal screening test.

"Understanding that four week during the summer is simply not enough to recover from the education impacts of this pandemic, APS will also implement focused intervention blocks during the academic school year this August and continuing through the 2023-24 school year," Brown said.

Even before the pandemic, less than 40 percent of APS students in third through eighth grades scored at the proficient level or above on the Georgia Milestones assessments for English Language Arts (ELA) and math in 2019. In high school, less than 50 percent of APS students scored proficient or above on any of the literature and composition, algebra 1 or geometry Georgia Milestones end-of-grade assessments in 2019.

While the percentage of students scoring at least at the proficient level mostly increased in the last several years, Brown said there is still room for improvement, especially given the pandemic's affect on student learning.

"Although our Milestones data show levels of increase over time, it continues to outline the opportunity to address previous learning gaps as well as mitigate varying levels of learning loss," Brown said.