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HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The President of the Houston Federation of Teachers shares what local educators experienced during HISD’s summer school classes.
For many Houston-area school districts, summer school for the 2020-21 school year is an opportunity to get students caught up on the learning they lost during the pandemic.
This comes following the results of the 2021 STAAR test, which showed more students across the state are failing to meet grade-level standards.
Houston ISD reported that 42 percent of its students failed one or more classes in the first grading period this past school year.
President of the Houston Federation of Teachers, Jackie Anderson, talked to several HISD educators who said the district’s summer school program, which was both in-person and online, was not enough to help close the learning gap.
“They are very disappointed with summer school this year,” Anderson said. “It remained hybrid, which was an epic failure during the school year. Summer school did not go as anticipated, and there was low attendance [which] saddens me because many students who needed summer school didn’t get it for the same reasons they fell behind during the school year.”
HISD also added an additional 15 days to its upcoming school calendar to try to accommodate the loss of learning. Anderson said she hopes that will be enough to get students back on track.
“Now, how long will it take to catch students up? It depends a lot on the students,” Anderson said. “It depends a lot on the support they get from their parents [and] the school. Students, I think, will be coming back willing and ready to learn. And if they are willing and ready, then they will learn [and] they can get caught up.”
Houston ISD did not respond to our request for comment on Friday.
Elsewhere, a spokesperson with Katy ISD told there were roughly the same amount of students that returned to summer school this year compared to last year. However, all of the students are trying to recover credit for their classes.
The district board of trustees also outlined in a monthly board meeting what was needed to address the loss of learning and where the funding needs to be funneled to help reopen schools safely.