Summer School: Not for Dummies Anymore

By Evan Jones
March 6, 2011

Traditionally, summer school was a doghouse reserved for students who flunked courses during the year and had to make up the work during the summer. The prospect of “Summer School” was a combination threat and disgrace during a student’s high school years. But now study during the summer no longer represents the stigma of failure, but has become a symbol of those who want to seize the opportunity to get ahead. In fact, many colleges (Emory Law School, for example¹) will not even permit a student to attend summer classes unless they maintain a sufficient grade point average. The increasing expansion of online college courses has contributed to this trend.

Brick-and-mortar colleges are currently reacting with ambivalence to summer education. Government education budgets have tightened. The State of California, for example, is seriously considering cutting back its standard summer program.² Louisiana public colleges are already canceling summer classes and activities after being hit with $300 million in budget cuts.³ On the other hand, Harvard has established a traditional classroom two-course summer “Secondary School Program”, where a student can take summer courses that are immediately good for credit at Harvard. This does not come cheap, however; tuition is $10,055.⁴

In any event, there appears to be an increase in demand for summer courses. The Houston Chronicle reported in June 2010 that University of Houston enrollment was up 11%, University of Houston-Clear Lake enrollment was up 11.3% and University of Houston-Downtown was up 3% from 2009. At Houston Community College, the increase was 24%, at Lone Star College, it was 33%, and at Texas Southern University, 35%.⁵

Removing the stigma from summer school can result in increased attendance for the K-12 crowd, as well. For example, in 2010, the Oconomowoc Area School District, Ohio, showed a 40% increase in summer school enrollment over a single year. Curriculum and instruction administrator Stephanie Leonard-Witte says, “It’s not this punitive institution it was in the past,” and that summer schools are no longer merely a last chance to make up lost ground.⁶