Minneapolis is expanding its summer school program

Twenty-two pairs of eyes followed third-grade teacher Paul Herlofsky as he used an interactive white board to project a worksheet a student had completed during a recent field trip to a regional park.

Field trips and white boards may not be that special, but Herlofsky's class at Jenny Lind Elementary in north Minneapolis represents an investment in summer school that sets the city apart.

As other school districts scale back or eliminate summer programs, the Minneapolis School District is expanding. With the help of partners in business, government and the arts, this year's summer school looks a lot like summer camp -- a deliberate attempt to keep kids who need extra help coming back for more.

"Reading and math [are] still the focus," said Mary Barrie, the district's director of alternative and charter school programs. "That's what we're in business for, but you have to find ways to keep kids engaged."

Last week more than 9,000 students, roughly 25 percent of the district's students, were enrolled in summer classes.

That's about the same amount of students who attended Minneapolis summer programs last year. But in the past, students would show up the first week only to disappear a week or two later.

"We would spend hours drilling them on reading and math; still the test scores didn't go up," said Ray Aponte, principal of Jefferson Elementary School, who is overseeing Emerson Elementary's summer program.

Test results released by the Minnesota Department of Education last month showed Minneapolis students performing well below the state average in reading and math. And the achievement gap between black and white students is wider in Minneapolis than in the state's largest districts -- Anoka-Hennepin and St. Paul.

So this summer, the district is trying to mix some incentives into academics. They've dubbed it "Camp MPS."

"The bottom line is, who wants to be in school all summer and not have any fun?" Aponte said.

The fun comes with the help of outside groups, including the Science Museum of Minnesota, Three Rivers Park District and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Partnering agencies often provide free tickets and help staff enrichment activities.

"It bothers me as a community member that most of them have never been to the downtown library or the Minneapolis Institute of Arts," Aponte said.

To make room for that and still keep teaching reading and math, the summer school day has grown from four to six hours Monday through Thursday. Students can sign up for a Friday program of recreational activities for $3.

It's not an inexpensive effort. Minneapolis expects to spend $5.5 million on its revamped summer program. That's roughly $1.8 million or a third more than the district spent on summer school in 2007.

Jan Braaten, Minneapolis' summer school coordinator, said the revamped summer program has even attracted attention from the U.S. Department of Education.

A representative from the department's Chicago office toured a few summer school sites Monday to learn more about the extended-day and enrichment programs.

Anoka-Hennepin, Minnesota's largest school district, reported that more than 4,000, or 10 percent of its 40,000 students, enrolled in its summer programs this year. Those figures are similar to its summer school enrollment last year.

Meanwhile, other parts of the country, particularly Florida and California, have gone the other way. Districts have slashed millions from their budgets by reducing enrichment programs and focusing on remedial programs.

Jeff Smink, policy director for the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said that trend is troubling.

Wasting the summer on movies and video games can be disproportionately detrimental to low-income kids, he said. Research suggests they're more likely to lose ground academically than middle- or high-income students who aren't busy during the summer.

Minneapolis offered remedial programs such as make-up and test-prep courses for students this summer. But district officials said enrichment programs motivate high- and low-achieving students.

"It's a long day for them, but we've accommodated the itty-bitty kids all the way up to these guys," said Amy Have, a teacher at Olson Middle Schools, about field trips to North Mississippi Regional Park and other activities.

Have said students spend about the same amount of time on math and science, roughly three hours combined, as they did last summer.

The difference is they also spend an hour or more each day exercising, working on a mural, visiting a regional park or engaged in another activity.

Have said teachers touted the changes to students and parents as early as late March and April. Some staff members said the result has been a visible difference in students' attitudes from day one.

"The kids are motivated to be here," said Vanita Miller, a teacher at Emerson Spanish Language Immersion Center in south Minneapolis. "Every day students come in and ask me where we're going or what we're doing that day."

Patrice Relerford • 612-673-4395