Nearly 1,500 high school students across Salem-Keizer Public Schools are back in class this summer.
They’re putting in extra hours four or five days a week to earn credits needed to graduate, repair past grades or improve their chances of getting into college.
The district’s black and Pacific Islander students perhaps stand to gain the most from these “credit recovery” programs since they historically have graduated at lower rates, attended school less frequently and scored lower on standardized tests than their peers.
And although they make up only a small percentage of the overall student body — with about 1% of Salem-Keizer’s nearly 42,000 students identifying as Black/African American and 2% identifying as Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander — the school district is just as responsible for making sure they succeed as other students.
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Natalie Pate 