The smell of buttery pancakes wafted through a Birmingham classroom as a group of Phillips Academy sixth graders lined up next to a row of griddles and mixing bowls.

“Welcome to Ms. Muhammad’s cafe!” they shouted.

Throughout the week, Muhammad’s students had examined real-world math problems. They learned how to compare costs of groceries, break down paychecks, and – at some students’ request – examined what it would take to finance a G-Wagon. Now, as they cooked, she reviewed fractions.

“Two-fourths makes a what?” she said, instructing a student to add another quarter cup of water to the mix.

“One half,” the group replied.

Muhammad was just one of about 40 teachers at Phillips, a pre-K-8 school in Birmingham, leading “intersession” periods, where students can get extra instruction and enrichment. Birmingham City Schools is the only known district in the state to keep classrooms fully open during break times in the fall, winter and spring (Mobile County has one school that operates year-round). A few times a year, Birmingham schools provide an optional five days of intensive math, science and reading lessons.

“Even though we have a break off, it’s fun to come to school and see them and learn together,” sixth grader Aubree Jones said, pointing to her friends. More than half of her class had opted to spend their week at school, instead of at home or on vacation.

“Stuff like this, like the baking thing, is helping us learn how to do measurements,” she said, “but we’re also getting other good things out of it –”

“– like cooking,” added student Chloe Coleman. “Ms. Muhammad, she wanted our pancakes to be right!”

Using summer learning programs as a model, Birmingham started the intersession program at local K-12 schools in October 2021. Three years later, participation has increased – and so have gains in reading and math, research shows.

District leaders said about 7,000 students have signed up for the program this fall, up from 1,800 in 2021.

A 2024 report by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama found that between 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, Birmingham students who attended intersession showed greater improvement on English language arts and math assessments than students who did not participate. Third graders saw some of the highest gains in both subjects, gaining an average of 22 points on the math portion of the state ACAP test, compared to an average gain of 13 points for non-participating students.

Muhammad credited the intersession periods for record-breaking gains in her class; last year, 79% of her students were proficient on the ACAP. Schoolwide, math scores at Phillips jumped by 17 percentage points from 2022 to 2024.

Researchers noted that voluntary programs sometimes draw in students who already are high-scoring, but in Birmingham, that hasn’t been the case: At least in early grades, the majority of attendees entered with lower than average state test scores and ended the year with larger gains. Local officials’ conclusion: Intersession works.

“Coming to intersession has really helped our students to say, ‘Hey, I can get ahead now, there’s a chance for me,’” Oliver Elementary principal Tamara Burney told AL.com in 2021, during a visit to one of the district’s first intersession programs. “I wish that we had something in place years ago. But, hey, it’s working now.”

Effective strategies

Birmingham’s model is just one way that schools across the country are working to regain lost ground during the pandemic. In Alabama, some districts have used virtual platforms to get students caught up, while others might receive high-dose tutoring or carve out some of the school day for accelerated learning.

The goal, experts say, should always be to teach grade-level content with the highest-quality instructional materials. There also has to be some level of engagement; teachers can’t just “drill and kill” their way through math or reading.

Daniel Jones, a Saint Louis principal who has studied the effects of extended learning time, said districts also need to consider how they can use intersessions to address a broad range of student needs.

“If you’re going to offer it, there needs to be something for everybody,” he said. “And you have to make sure there’s equity built in and everybody has access.”

Phillips Academy is a magnet school, meaning students who aren’t already zoned for the school must take a test to get in. The school generally performs well on state tests, but, like many others, it had its own share of struggles during the pandemic.

Principal Emeka Nzeocha said students and staff have embraced the intersession periods, both as a way to catch up and to accelerate learning. On top of classroom instruction, the school holds gifted programs during the break and carves out time for students to use Edgenuity, an online program that customizes lessons to each student’s needs.

From fall 2022 to 2023, intersession participation at Phillips nearly doubled from 27% to 49%, according to PARCA. Nzeocha said in recent years, he has put an extra emphasis on getting student athletes and K-3 graders to sign up.

“Their attention spans are so short that a week’s break could potentially unravel a lot of things that you’ve already prepared them for,” Nzeocha said. “So any time we can keep a good number of them here during certain break periods, it’s good – it keeps them interactive, not just academically but for interpersonal reasons, too. They’re here with their friends and it’s a positive environment.”

Downstairs, third graders in Kristin Williams’ class prepared for a spelling test by breaking down words into vowels and consonants. After lunch, the class turned into a stage, where students belted their multiplication tables to a lively beat.

Across the hall, fourth grade teacher Ayzer Akcay used TikTok metaphors to help her students understand rounding. About 20 of her 25 students showed up for class that day. Students said they wanted to get more practice and “get better at learning.”

“I came here to get smarter and do better at ACAP and learn more,” a student named Elijah said, adding: “And not to play around.”

Will it continue?

One of the biggest challenges of extending instructional days, researchers say, is the cost. This year, Birmingham paid certified teachers $60 an hour to work during the breaks.

In their recent report, PARCA researchers said there are still questions about whether enough students are participating to justify the expense.

“Intersession provides Birmingham City Schools students with up to 4 weeks of

additional in-school time,” researchers wrote. “The cost of opening and staffing schools would have to be weighed against the benefits provided to students, their parents, and the faculty and staff of BCS.”

Since 2021, schools across the nation have received an unprecedented amount of federal funding meant to help them recover from the pandemic. But at the end of this month, those funds will dry up.

“If you work in an environment that has been historically underfunded, and you’re able to provide resources that students have not ever had, money can solve some problems,” Superintendent Mark Sullivan told AL.com recently. “Now that those funds have gone away, we’ve learned a lot about some of the things that we did during that ESSER that worked – for example, intersession.”

Districts were required to spend a portion of that federal money on efforts to address “learning loss,” such as tutoring and remediation services. Since 2021, Birmingham City Schools have spent about $12 million on staffing for intersessions.

Sullivan said Birmingham schools will receive an additional $1.8 million from the state legislature to keep intersession programs going. Leaders also are writing grants, using local funds, and leaning on volunteers to support broader intervention and literacy efforts in the future.

Mark Dixon, at A+ Education Partnership, said extended learning programs are a great way to close achievement gaps. State innovation grants and a more flexible school funding formula, he said, could help support other districts that also are finding ways to sustain those opportunities.

“I just applaud them for thinking outside the box,” he said. “There are 1,000 ways that districts could have spent ESSER money, and I think Birmingham looked at the challenge they had and they did the best they could to try something new to meet the needs of their students.”

This year, Birmingham schools are only doing two intersession periods, instead of three or more. At Phillips, teachers said the shift would help limit out-of-school time for students who choose to stay at home. But overall, they said the sessions have been critical for student learning – and keeping stress levels low.

“It depends from student to student, but I saw the gains,” Akcay said. “I’ve never seen any student during an intersession being stressed like they are in the school day.”

For Muhammad, success is about more than just test scores.

“I like to have fun but I’m also serious about what I do, because they’re the future,” she said.

“When children are not educated, then this is when you see these mass shootings, you see the drugs and you see all the crime, because what else is there for them to do? I’ve got to survive, so I’m either going to survive the right way or the wrong way,” she added. “And I feel like education is the right way to go about things, so that’s why I try to do what I do.”