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NEW YORK, NY July 26, 2004 — Roughly 9000 third graders in danger of being held back this fall have a few more weeks to see if they can pass their exams and move on to the fourth grade. Mayor Bloomberg's new policy of ending "social promotion" of third graders includes an intensive focus on summer school. WNYC's Beth Fertig visited a Brooklyn classroom to see how they're doing.

Summer school is hard on all students. The bright sunshine and sounds of other kids playing outside are constant reminders of places they'd rather be. But the challenge is even more difficult for Albert Zeno's class of third graders at PS 156.

ZENO: In 1997 the Field Museum in Chicago became Sue's final home. Who is Sue? KID: The dinosaur, the T Rex. ZENO: Raise your hand.

Students are supposed to be fluent readers by the end of third grade. But these children are all Level Ones. Kids who scored at the lowest of four levels on their citywide math or reading tests. Zeno says that changes his approach to teaching.

ZENO: Some of the reading's a little difficult so what I do is, I read it to them. And I have them, you know, I have them look on as I'm reading actually with their fingers go through it and look at the words as I go across the page to help them. Because they need a little bit of, a lot of support.

Zeno has ten years' experience and teaches computer classes during the regular school year. There are fifteen students in his class. An assistant teacher helps him manage the classroom as he takes turns working with groups of five during the morning reading block.

ZENO: How many teeth does a T Rex have? KIDS: 58. ZENO: 58 teeth. And when they fall out what happens? KIDS: It grows back.

About 10 percent of the kids at PS 156 scored below the cutoff on their math or readings tests. And the reasons aren't surprising. Principal Oswaldo Malave says extra tutoring programs helped prevent many of his students from failing. But in this poor community of Brownsville, other students were much more affected by the chronic problems of poverty and chaotic households.

MALAVE: About half of these children came to us from other schools, they've only been here 1 year. Some of the children have learning disabilities, they have special needs that need to be attended to.

He says some parents didn't want their children evaluated for special education services because they were afraid of the stigma. The school has convinced a few to change their minds. Other kids live in bilingual homes where they might not have gotten the help they needed when they were first learning to read.

In previous years, summer school was open to all kinds of students - including those whose parents just wanted them to stay busy. But with the new promotion policy, the city is concentrating on third graders who failed their exams. That means teachers like Albert Zeno are working with those kids who are furthest behind. And it's a tremendous challenge.

ZENO: What words also begin with SPR? KIDS: Sprain. Spray. Spritz.

Each day is tightly structured with lots of activities including phonics, where kids sound out different combinations of letters. They'll spend 10 or 20 minutes on each block of instruction to pack in as much material as possible in reading and math.

ZENO: OK Clap once if you can hear me. Clap twice.

But Zeno's students have extremely short attention spans. A few of the girls won't stop talking. One 10 year-old boy who's been left behind twice already sucks his thumb as he moves around. And some students come from troubled families.

ZENO: What's going on here? I need you over here, let's go.

There's a large boy in a blue jersey who lives in a homeless shelter and just entered the school. Two children live in foster homes. One seems to know the answer to every question. But he's distracted by a piece of paper that he folds and licks. And Zeno confronts one child about why he's been absent.

KID: Because I had to ZENO: I know why. You're mother should have told me you were going to be away for 3 days. Summer school's only 20 days and you're already absent for 4.

Zeno says there's no question that problems at home affect his students' performance. He tries to work with their families whenever possible.

ZENO: I have 15 children this summer. Right now I'd say I have 10 parents I've spoken to on a regular basis. Other parents I haven't been able to get in touch with. FERTIG: What does that mean? ZENO: That means that at home they don't know what's happening here. I mean, there are certain behaviors their parents need to address at home.

It's also a long day. The kids go to school for breakfast at 8 a.m. and they're in class from 8:30 to 1 p.m. when they break for lunch and dismissal. In the four and a half hours that he has them, Zeno tries to keep things moving with the right blend of support and discipline. By 11 a.m. they're becoming more fidgety and he has to separate a boy from the group.

ZENO: I'm not punishing you. I'm helping you. Because you're not focusing you're talking to him.

The children know their tests at the end of summer will determine who can move on to the fourth grade. Some like 8 year-old Kimberly Brower say summer school is a good thing.

KIDS: They give you another chance. If you fail like now, they give you another chance. FERTIG: And do you think you're going to be able to pass next time? KIDS: Yes, yes, no.

A few kids aren't so confident though. (Fade class sound) And parents are also feeling pressure. The school has been holding workshops for them. Calls are made whenever a student is absent.

As she drops off her 8 year-old son Fernan at school one morning, Rafaela Barrero says she's doing all she can to make sure he gets into fourth grade.

BARRERO: He gotta do his homework. I help him to do it, yeah. On time. I put him to bed on time. FERNAN: Can I go home now?

Fernan is clearly unhappy about going to summer school. But his attendance is perfect. His family immigrated from Santo Domingo when he was little and he scored the highest level on his math exam. He's just having trouble with his reading skills.

Teacher Alfred Zeno knows his greatest challenge this summer is meeting the individual learning needs of each of his students. But he says that's hard to do, even with a smaller class of 15 students - compared to 28 or 30 in the regular school year. As he sits down for lunch in the teacher's lounge at the end of a long day, he acknowledges the program's limits.

ZENO: It keeps them warmed up to some of the skills. Keeps them reading. A lot of that won't happen in the home. We have books here. FERTIG: looking at this class how many can you say will be able to move on to the fourth grade? ZENO: At this point? At this point maybe 3-4. That's my observation, I don't know how they'll do on the test.

The students will be tested again in the middle of August. Those students who fail will be sent back to third grade in the fall, in regular classrooms where they'll again be competing for attention with 25 to 30 children. City officials say there are plans to handle this by sending specialists into the classrooms to work with low performing students. And that may be the true test of whether the mayor's new policy prevents them from falling even further behind. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.