Summer Programs

Summer services have historically been a key element of Migrant Educational Program design. And the number of MEP students participating in summer programs in Region 1 has increased dramatically over the past few years. That is a positive trend. This is primarily due to an increased focus on promotion standards, but also to emerging sources of intervention funding for extended learning opportunities. While that trend is beginning to reverse itself, it is still extremely clear that district resources and programs should provide a baseline of services for MEP students before unique MEP programs are designed and layered over the top of those. If it were ever possible to operate MEP summer services in a vacuum in the past, this is clearly NOT in the best interest of the students and families any longer. We must adjust our programs to first make full use of other funding sources. Ours is a supplemental program. If we continue to operate to programs as in the past, we run the danger if supplanting existing programs. Just as importantly, we do a disservice to our students in that we may in fact put them in greater risk if we do not adjust program services appropriately. With that in mind, there are several VALID uses of MEP funding and staff that are recommended during the summer months. You will notice throughout an emphasis on collaborations with existing programs, and moving to unique MEP outreach efforts only when it is clear that needs are not being met by existing programs and services.

1. The MOST AT RISK students we serve are those who are at risk of retention, and who are required by the district to attend summer school as a condition of their promotion. The first and foremost function of MEP summer services, then, is to provide supplemental support to ensure that those students at risk of retention attend the district program. You may wish to consider some of the following services, which represent both valid program functions and wise uses of MEP funding and staffing.

   1. Translate the summer school "letter" into the home language of your families, and mail a copy to every family of at risk students.

   2. Personally call each family of at risk students, and review with them the educational progress of their children, as well as the importance of attending the district summer school program.

   3. Visit the homes of migrant families and help them out the necessary paperwork to enroll their children in summer school.

   4. Hold a special parent meeting. Invite the families of at-risk children. Bring in a district representative to explain to them the importance of the summer interventions. Provide on-site assistance with questions and help families fill out necessary paperwork.

   5. Contact the summer school coordinator in your district. Review with them the list of migrant students who are at risk. Compare with summer school list. Advocate for additional slots for migrant students.

   6. Call migrant families the week before summer school begins. Remind them of the start of summer school. Answer any questions they may have.

   7. Check attendance rolls after the first day of summer school. Ensure the migrant students who are enrolled are in attendance. Call families of those students who are absent the first day.

   8. Compile weekly attendance logs for migrant students. Call their parents. Give positive feedback to those families whose children are attending summer school regularly. Remind others of the importance of regular attendance. Help communicate and enforce any attendance policies which the district may have in force for the summer school attendance.

   9. Run Saturday School sessions to allow migrant students to make up any time lost. Of course, you would only want to do this with the knowledge and the blessing of the district.

   10. If transportation is a problem, provide transportation for migrant students to and from summer school. Reminder: the transportation services funded by MEP should be supplemental to anything the district might already be providing. The transportation funded by MEP should ONLY support the transportation of eligible migrant children; and IF YOU ARE GOING TO COFUND transportation services, you MUST contact your regional office and allow our staff to assist with a cost allocation model for funding.

   11. Depending on the language skills of your summer school teachers, as well as the LEP profile of your migrant students, hire bilingual assistants for those classrooms with significant numbers of migrant children.

   12. Reduce the student to teacher ratio for migrant students by hiring additional teachers to deliver the district summer program to migrant-eligible children. These teachers, if funding from MEP source, should be working ONLY with migrant-eligible children. Again, if any confounding is to occur, the regional office staff should be involved.

   13. Extend summer school services to migrant students who are at risk, but who would not otherwise be served. These might be your 2nd quartile performers, for example. They might not receive an invitation to summer school from the district, but might nevertheless be performing below grade level. Hire additional summer school teachers with migrant funds. They key here is that you should REPLICATE THE SERVICES OFFERED IN THE DISTRICT CLASSROOM. Do NOT deliver a unique MEP curriculum. Any teachers you hire to extend services to migrant children should participate in the staff development offered to other summer school teachers.

   14. Offer incentives to students who attend regularly and/or who are making satisfactory progress in summer school. This might involve a field trip. It might be as simple as an ice-cream social each Friday for students who meet predetermined targets. You can be creative with this. The key is that we want to reinforce positive behavior and positive outcomes for our migrant children. You will have to work with your summer school staff and parents to determine what incentives might be most effective.

   15. Host a STUDENT RECONGNITION NIGHT for those students who successfully complete summer school. Invite their parents. Recognize individual student performance. Celebrate with students and parents the successes of the summer program.

   16. At the end of the summer program, work with district staff to determine which migrant students may NOT have met the predetermined growth targets for the summer program. Utilize MEP funding and staff to provide additional learning opportunities for these children. If your district program, for example, ends in July, you may wish to provide services to needy students during the month of August.

   17. Finally, don't assume this list is exhausting. I'm sure it is not. You may have other ideas. Please share with us, as well as your other colleagues, any successful implementations you may come up with on your own. Also, DON'T try to do IMPLEMENT EVERY INTERVENTION mentioned. Use your judgment in terms of which interventions might be appropriate for your migrant student population.

2. Any MIGRANT CLASSROOM which you choose to fund with MEP summer funding should have the look and feel of a district summer school classroom. Do NOT supplant district services. Rather, utilize MEP funding in a way that helps building the capacity of the district summer program for serving migrant children. Organize MIRGRANT CLASSROOMS only to reduce students to teacher ratios for migrant children, and to extend summer services to migrant children who might not otherwise be served.

3. Use MEP summer funding to serve your Pre-K population. In most case, services are NOT being provided during the summer for this population. Whether or not you have sufficient REGULAR YEAR funding to provide a program for your preschoolers, summer is an ideal time to provide a focused program of instruction. Be sure to properly assess the preschoolers with a pre- and post- test. The assessment could certainly be informal and observational in nature. Depending on your preschool numbers, you wish to focus your program around preparing those children who will be entering kindergarten in the fall. Involve district kindergarten staff in the design of your summer program.

4. It might be that there are other grade levels (besides Pre-K) which are not included in the district summer school program. If that is the case, you might consider providing summer school services to these children. For example, if the district does not offer a program for first grade students, it would be very appropriate for your MEP funding to pick up this piece. Keep the program focused around the standards. Depending on the profile of your migrant children at a given grade level, you might want to focus on language development or reading.

5. Organize a PASS program for those migrant secondary students who are credit deficient. Ensure that these students first take advantage of any credit accrual opportunities offered by the school district. The PASS course work should only be used to supplement existing courses.

6. Run special academics for migrant students who would not otherwise be served during the summer. You might consider a MATH ACADEMY for middle school students to prepare them for the rigor of Algebra or Pre-Algebra offering during the regular year. You could also offer a LANGUAGE ACADEMY for high-achieving LEP students who need to solidify reading and writing skills in order to be reclassified and moved into the mainstream. Again, these special academies should be purely supplemental to anything the district is offering. If the district already has something like this organized, you should first ensure that migrant students have access to the program, then utilize MEP funding to extend that model to more migrant children.

7. Provide OUTREACH to your Out of School Youth population. If profiles have not been completed summer is an ideal time to address that issue. If profiles are in place, summer is a great time to follow up with the students and help them access the services and programs they need.

8. Organize a PROFICIENCIES-BASED summer program for your migrant secondary students. Help them build the skills necessary to pass district competencies and/or the High School Exit Exam. You could offer proficiency classes either during the afternoon, after students have completed summer courses offered by the district in the morning, or after the district summer term has been completed. Again, be sure to coordinate with the district on any such offering to ensure that students who meet competencies receive credit for having done so.

9. Offer a special TECH ACADEMY from migrant students. Give them access to the one area of literacy that is most frequently overlooked for migrant students. Teach them the basics of computer usage, keyboarding, work processing functions, spreadsheets, and Internet usage.

10. Seek out quality SUMMER CAMPS in your area. Provide funding for migrant students to attend these summer camps. Of course, you should first determine if any scholarships are available and advocate for migrant students being included with scholarships. But once that issue has been addressed, you could ensure that migrant students have access to some of the same rich EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING that other, more affluent students receive. You could organize a SUMMER CAMP of your own just for migrant students, but keep in mind that often the summer camps that are already available would provide migrant students with not only a rich learning environment, but exposure to mainstream student populations.

11. Conduct FOCUSED SUMMER RECRUITMENT for your district program. We know that summer is a high season for many of our families. Depending on your progress toward recruitment goals, you might wish to consider supplemental summer funding to conduct active identification and recruitment, which will allow you to meet recruitment goals. Continue to build on positive outreach efforts to locate migrant students and families.