the pandemic's toll on learning is still being felt in school districts throughout the state and Newark is no exception the state's largest public school system identified about 10 000 kindergarten through 12th grade students in need of mandatory summer school this year that's double the number from last year senior correspondent Joanna gagas has a look at what's driving the increase and how the summer program aims to fill the gaps the realities of the pandemic Linger on we are concerned that many of our students are experiencing learning laws there's a major push in the Newark Public Schools right now to enroll more kids in summer school after State tests and internal assessments show many are behind grade level in literacy and math while we've intensified tutoring before school and after school and even on the weekends the idea that we wanted to intensify the summer offerings has been our reality the district found that more than ten thousand students are in need of extra help numbers they feel have risen due to learning loss caused by the pandemic within that 10080 there are six thousand that are of concern to us where we've been making calls uh um on a daily basis to make sure that the parents are aware we need all of their kids to school into school on time beginning July 5th the district is expanding its summer offerings opening 14 School schools around the city for students in K through 7th grades and moving from two high schools to now 12 that will offer summer courses for high school students from credit recovery courses to accelerated learning a new approach to more intensified subject-specific learning for example you can have accelerated geometry accelerated algebra accelerated history and that's great because you can move yourself up and also those classes are usually smaller and the teacher can really focus on your needs this approach can help students grasp Core Concepts they may have struggled with during the year in larger classes says Yvette Jordan but Chris cannick is concerned the new program is only focused on acceleration which requires Educators to really assess where students are academically when they enter the summer program if you're going to have an accelerated approach you also have to recognize that acceleration Nation starts where a student is not where you want them to be so we need a differentiated learning program there needs to be a program like that for students who have been struggling and are traditionally struggling attendance is another struggle but Newark learned its lesson there by doing away with a policy from its state control days of expelling summer school students for days missed those policies taught students well if you don't come to school a couple days then you don't have to come at all but they are communicating to parents that some students need to be there we have a what we call the mandatory program at the elementary level that is that does have teeth with it where we are requiring a population of students to attend uh it's from 9 to 12 about an hour and a half focused on literacy instruction uh and then the other 90 minutes on mathematics with breakfast and lunch at the start and end and while it is mandatory failure to attend won't prevent a child from moving on to the next grade but it will mean they they start with a greater deficit and while those deficits do exist Ron chalawissan says there's no benefit in talking to the kids about them if you're talking to the child about the Gap that you have automatically you're you're not as good as you're not so what I really like to do is think about what does that child do and then set goals for where that child needs to be next he believes reducing that pressure helps them learn better especially in the summer when let's be serious kids want to be outside playing no kid learns if they're not comfortable and so sometimes I think with the adult pressure for kids that they're so far behind we need to do this now that sometimes gets in the way so thinking about what does a classroom experience look like how do I make sure that the child has enough space to get up and roam around and talk to friends and in that process learn I think that's really critical focusing on that social emotional development Leon says there will be a big focus on fun even during the more intensive classes that begin next Wednesday July 5th for NJ spotlight news I'm Joanna gagis [Music]