In a flunk

ABOUT 100,000 STUDENTS NEED SUMMER SCHOOL

This summertime, the learnin’ won’t be easy.

The city is readying for a huge spike in the number of students taking summer classes — and, like the past 10 weeks of the spring semester, they’ll all be conducted online.

About 102,000 kids will be required to do summer school this year, up from about 44,000 students last year, according to the Education Department.

Educators will “recommend” another 48,000 students take summer classes, a new category after schools moved all classes online in March.

About 28,000 students with disabilities will do virtual summer school, roughly the same number as last year.

“It stands to reason it would be harder and some kids would have to need more time and more help,” Mayor de Blasio said at a Tuesday news conference, discussing the huge number of summer school students.

“We are projecting and providing capacity to be able to serve as many students as possible and students that will need this kind of support,” said city Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.

He noted many students — about 100,000 — did summer programs other than classes last year, but with those no longer available due to the school closures, that group is doing virtual summer school, instead.

For students in grades 3 through 8, the offerings including English and math — delivered via a mix of live and “prerecorded” instruction. Eighth-graders will also be able to take social studies and science classes, in order to meet high school entry requirements.

Classes will be held four days a week for about 5½ weeks, starting July 13.

High schoolers who flunked or received a “course in progress” designation — one of the new Education Department categories supplanting grades — will be able to retake classes online. Those will happen five days a week for six weeks, also starting July 13.

Special-needs students

with an “individualized education programs,” or IEP, will do virtual class five days a week starting July 1.

Officials downplayed the risks of relying on prerecorded classes — a major hindrance to actual supervision — with Carranza saying, “Our focus is to have as much live learning as possible.”

He noted that teachers will get extra training between the end of the spring semester and the start of summer classes, and that educators and social workers will conduct one-on-one check-ins with students.

The city will also provide “virtual field trips,” “virtual clubs” and e-books to reduce the tedium of online learning, Carranza and de Blasio said.

The mayor said the goal is to “keep our students on track and ready to hit the ground running in September” so the city can have “the greatest school year we’ve ever had” next academic year, repeating a phrase he introduced weeks ago.

The slogan comes even as Hizzoner has proposed more than $200 million in cuts to school budgets, drawing dismay from educators, activists and local lawmakers. “The mayor is in the ‘Twilight Zone’ when he says next year will be the greatest school year ever while at the same time proposing over $200 million in direct budget cuts,” City Councilman Mark Treyger (D-Brooklyn), chairman of the Education Committee, told the Daily News.

He also voiced skepticism of the effectiveness of online learning, noting the city has yet to divulge the number of students who haven’t logged on to a single class since schools closed March 15.

“The experience of remote learning is not being shared equally by all students, particularly if you’re a child with an IEP with live instruction … that cannot be provided in a remote setting,” Treyger said.