Lauren Smith carefully drew a triangle in her notebook, her shoulders bent over the classroom desk as she calculated the measure of each angle and also the length of each side.
It was 10:15 a.m. on a recent Wednesday, but Smith wasn’t playing outside, chatting with buddies or even sleeping. The 15-year-old sophomore was halfway through the almost five hours of geometry that she takes every day at Oak Park and River Forest High School.
Summer school was traditionally seen like a remedial operation, a way for students who had fallen behind to catch up. But today, numerous students select to hit the books in June and July so they are able to rack up extra credits — for a fee — or discover the ropes prior to starting freshmen year. High schools cater to the new type of teenager with an array of college-prep courses.
Numerous educators now call it the “third semester” of high school.
“When I was in high school, if you took summer school, you were in trouble,” said Brian Mathien, summer school principal at Barrington High School. “It’s completely shifted now. Kids take it to obtain ahead.”
One factor is that some high-schoolers, like those in Illinois, must take more programs to graduate in current years. Students might struggle to boost their academic credentials while leaving room in their course schedule to sing using the choir or edit the school newspaper. For some over-scheduled teens, summer time classes are the only method to fit it all in.
To be certain, some summer school students still retake courses and make up credits if they failed during the year. But numerous many more enroll to obtain a leg up.
Measuring how summer school enrollments have changed over time is difficult due to a dearth of data on the subject. Nevertheless, a 2009 report by the Education Commission of the States discovered that about 10 percent from the nation’s public school college students attend school-sponsored programs each summer time, and also the number of schools offering this kind of courses doubled within the past 25 years.
Educators say summer time class listings assist explain the draw.
At Oak Park and River Forest High School, students can prep for any college-level biology class, study the history of World War II as well as travel to Tanzania to study ecology. For a lighter touch students may dabble in pottery or computer animation, summer time school Director Dale Craft mentioned.
At New Trier Township High School, 1,868 school students — nearly half from the school’s enrollment — headed back to class for summer time session. The biggest hits are in-depth science courses where teens learn a week’s worth of lessons every day and tackle a week’s worth of homework every night.
“It’s certainly another semester and it starts much less than a week right after school is out,” mentioned Superintendent Linda Yonke.
Over a recent morning, as the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” played in the background, sophomores Spencer Michelson and Eric Chang filtered Grape Kool-Aid down to its basic elements — water, red dye and blue dye — and boiled vials of the liquid on a hot plate to detect the dextrose in each solution.
Chang, 15, mentioned he thinks from the summer in terms of the normal school calendar.
“Right now, it’s about February,” Chang joked.
“Actually, right after Monday, it will probably be spring break. We’re in March,” said teacher and science division Chairman Gerry Munley. “This is a means of experimenting with time. Kids don’t realize all the ways they can learn.”
Summer school evolved from so-called vacation schools that began through the late 19th century as a way to keep children involved and out of mischief, said Kenneth Gold, author of “School’s In: The History of Summer Education in American Public Colleges.”
Nationwide, many educators see summer time college more as a way to narrow the achievement gap and prepare weak students to excel through the year, said Jeff Smink, vice president of policy using the National Summer Learning Association.
But summer time learning isn’t totally free. Gold said that throughout the 20th century, schools caught in a financial squeeze routinely slashed spending for summer enrichment classes. Cash-strapped local schools are confronting the exact same dilemma these days.
Families face other concerns about summer school, as well, this kind of as the nagging worry that kids should have a break from the stress of understanding.
Oak Park parent Liz Smith hesitated when her daughter asked to enroll in the summer time geometry course. Teachers encouraged Lauren, saying she had the abilities to succeed in advanced math.
Smith wanted to become sure it was the correct fit.
“The course is 4 hours and 40 minutes. I kept saying that to her. But from day one, she never as soon as thought twice about it,” Smith said. “You can’t do anything but support that.”
With two weeks left prior to finals, Lauren Smith goes to bed by 11 p.m. so she can wake up, pack herself a snack and report for course by 7:45 a.m.
She mentioned it is not as poor as it appears.
“What else would I be doing?” she mentioned. “All my friends are in summer school.”