Cleveland elementary students by the hundreds attend summer school to prep for state tests

The Cleveland School District has shepherded a third of the past year's second-graders into summer school, trying to make good on a looming self-imposed deadline for raising their test scores.

Many of the 1,144 students were voluntarily signed up by their families, at the urging of principals and teachers, after the children's reading and mathematics skills were found to be lagging by as much as one grade level.

Prodding also helped bring in 1,238 first-graders, a third of that class.

The district is scrambling to accomplish "Mission Possible," its campaign to have Cleveland students performing on par with their suburban peers by third grade, when state achievement tests begin. The target year for parity is 2010.