Some students prefer ‘Ingenuity’ of summer school
“I like summer school better than regular school,” says Alley Ledo, standing outside of Warwick Vets Middle School. Ledo is a student at the city’s summer school and, as of last week, had completed two of the three courses she’s taking, although the school doesn’t end until tomorrow.
While teachers oversee classes and give instruction, the summer program relies on Ingenuity, a computer program that allows students to work at their own pace yet keeps teachers informed of their progress.
“It’s a comprehensive credit recovery system,” said Tim Kane, director of Warwick’s summer school program.
“The pace of regular school is just too slow,” said Ledo. “I already have both of my online classes finished and just have to finish math.” According to Kane, math classes are not offered online through Ingenuity.
“After high school I want to go into nursing,” Ledo said.
Ledo, who will be attending Toll Gate this fall, is not alone in preferring the pace of learning with Ingenuity.
Jeremy Peña wants to be a chef and Shahid Lynch-Smith wants to be a history teacher. Both are Pilgrim students. All three say they are getting better grades in summer school than in their regular schooling year, and that they feel more confident they will graduate than if they hadn’t gone to summer school. Ledo also spoke on how she doesn’t like anything about school in the regular year, calling it “a waste of time.”
Ingenuity is being used outside of summer school, too.
Mackenzie Martin, a home school student who formerly attended Cranston High School East has been using Ingenuity as her sole form of education for the past year completing her junior year successfully. Martin says that she “feels more successful using Ingenuity” and that she “completed first quarter classes two months before students in regular school.”
Martin says that she couldn’t focus in school, saying that it moved too slowly, similar to Ledo’s view. When asked if she felt as if she was losing the social aspect of school, Martin said “yes and no. You don’t interact with students as much for classes, but I still have my friends from before I started homeschooling and with the Internet it’s impossible to not be social”
Katherine Newman, a teacher at the summer school, doesn’t agree with this sentiment.
When asked if she thought Ingenuity would work for the full school year, Newman said, “I don’t think it would work as well, the interaction with other kids and group work cooperative learning helps a lot, in this short period of time ingenuity works better.” Newman did point out one positive, “Those who can move forward [in their lessons] can do it, I had three today who finished successfully. It allowed me more time to help the other students.”
When asked about the improvement in grades that the students reported Newman said, “I think they learn more because they have to focus more. It’s more independent; Devan [Andrews] is almost done. He has the ability to work with me when he’s stuck. [The] students who understand the material can move ahead with their work and those that need help can get it. We have that ability [to help students one on one] without holding the other kids back.”
Kane mirrors this view. “I wouldn’t say it’s a better way because sometimes there’s too much flexibility. [The school system has] done this credit recovery throughout the year without the intense teacher moderation from day to day, and it’s not as successful. I think it’s successful in summer school because there’s a teacher constantly monitoring, calling home, checking in, making sure everything is done.” According to Kane, “Classes are still capped at 28 students” during summer school, despite the use of online programs. This is “because of the teacher interaction and help on quizzes and assignments.”
Kane also spoke on the new location for the summer school at Warwick Vets Middle School. The program was held at Pilgrim last year. Vets is air conditioned.
“It’s a huge difference from last year,” he said. Kane said the heat was oppressive at Pilgrim.
“It clearly affects kids’ demeanor when they come into the air conditioned building,” he said.
In summer school, all of the available classes except for math, physical education, and health are taught online. According to Kane, math is “ too difficult of a concept for a computer to teach, the math classes are traditional type education.” He then explained how the teacher “see everything that’s going on in the classroom on her computer’s dashboard” in a class that is based on Ingenuity. Kane says there are 275 students in summer school, 24 seniors, most of whom will have a summer graduation if they pass all their courses. Summer school comes to a close tomorrow.
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KANE IN CHARGE: Warwick Summer School director Tim Kane checks enrollment in the school.
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HARD AT WORK: A math class focuses on their teacher’s lesson for the day.
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ONE ON ONE: Katherine Newman works with Devan Andrews during class.
