Summer school enrollment up, but could drop next week

The number of students enrolled in summer school has increased more than 16 percent compared to the same time last summer.

That’s according to a snapshot of summer school enrollment and attendance from Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week that city officials released today.

The jump isn’t a surprise. This year, the city and state raised the bar that determines who passes the state exams and who falls into the low-scoring range that requires them to attend summer school.

But the number of students compelled to attend summer classes could fall next week, when the state releases the official results of its third- through eighth-grade math and reading exams. Because the state delayed its testing schedule this year, the city set its own cutoffs that were used only to decide who would be sent to summer school.

It’s possible that some students marked as failing under the city’s provisional scoring could end up officially scoring high enough to be promoted to the next grade without the extra class time. If that happens, the students will be given the option to drop out of their summer classes.

The full enrollment and attendance numbers released by the city today, including the numbers of students principals opted to send to summer school, are below.