The achievement gap between low- and high-income students is 30-40 percent higher for students born in 2001 than those born 25 years earlier, according to the National Summer Learning Association. The stigma of summer school is changing as experts find that summer learning losses continue to divide opportunities between low- and high- income students and that students can’t afford to unlearn knowledge every summer as our world standing in education continues to slip.

A strong focus for summer learning initiatives is on low-income students who don’t have the same summer learning opportunities afforded to their peers from higher-income families, causing them to be at a perpetual disadvantage at the beginning of each school year. However, summer learning loss isn’t exclusively a low-income problem. All students who don’t exercise their math skills over the summer lose about 2 months of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills. Low-income students are more likely to also lose 2 months of reading achievement, while their more affluent peers improve (NSLA).

This summer, LifeBound held a series of summer workshops for students in middle school through high school who attend school in Colorado Springs and Jefferson County School District. Scholarships were given to outstanding students to attend the week-long training. Class titles included: Critical and Creative Thinking: Becoming an Effective Coach, Problem Solver, and Decision Maker and Success in Middle School: How to Make a Great Transition for students in 5-9 grade and Critical and Creative Thinking and Mastery of Leadership: Leading in College, Career, and Life for high school students.

Students in Jefferson County are finishing up their last week in their summer workshops this week, and we look forward to hearing about all that they’ve learned. We will continue posting student reflections on our LifeBound student blog over the next few weeks. Today we have three articles by our talented middle school attendee of the Critical and Creative Thinking workshop in Colorado Springs, Keegan. Just one tidbit he took away:

You don’t have to do something great to be a great person. Whether you create a cure for cancer, or invent some socks that never smell, the thing that makes you great is your attitude.

Next week we will have some more articles from our high school students who attended the Leadership course.

Read Keegan’s blogs:

• What I Learned at LifeBound’s Critical and Creative Thinking Summer Workshop
• Using Critical and Creative Thinking Skills In and Out of the Classroom: A Student Reflection
• What I Learned About Teamwork and Leadership in LifeBound’s Summer Workshop

Learning is a process. We often think of the K-12 experience as a linear experience as students progress from one grade to the next, but within the 12+ years of school, students undergo multiple transitions that break that numerical structure and make it anything but seamless.

Students experience big transitions like going from elementary school to middle school, middle school to high school, and high school to college. They also experience smaller change from year to year or from a holiday break to academic schedule.  Each new year brings new people, more rigor, higher expectations, and less space between the student and graduation day.

This is why successful transitions are crucial for successful students. What makes a transition successful? Preparedness, curiosity, familiarity, and support are just some factors in helping a student navigate the unknown. We know from experience in anything we do, whether setting out on a hike or assembling a bookcase, that we get some advantage over a new situation if we have been properly introduced to it and are given the tools to succeed. But between teaching and testing, many teachers don’t have the time to  both teach to academics and prepare students socially and emotionally for the transition. That’s why the summer months leading up to the new year is a great time for schools to offer a transition program.

In Louisville, Kentucky the program Next Step is specifically focused on helping ESL high school students get prepared for college. The program was started by a retired ESL teacher, Jackie Thomas, who worked at a local community college. Thomas saw international students who had the potential to go on to college, but who didn’t know how to get into college — an obstacle that is familiar to many students at poverty level in rural and urban areas. She approached the ESL program director and was able to secure a grant for a summer program. The program caters to international students who are refugees or on the edge of poverty. Many of their families moved them to the U.S. for increased opportunity, but find opportunity can be out of reach for those unfamiliar with the system. Over the summer months, the Next Step program teaches students how to get into college, apply for financial aid, and succeed in higher education. They also take tours of the local colleges, write resumes, and learn the jargon used by colleges that can be confusing for a non-native speaker.1

So, whose responsibility is the transitioning student? A successful transition and seamless entry into the next phase of education is in everybody’s best interest. Schools can create programs like the one in Louisville. Parents can have summer reading groups using books like LifeBound’s Success in Middle School, Making the Most of High School, and Majoring in the Rest of Your Life. Students can take a tour of the campus, take advantage of orientation and student services, and interview their friends and family who have successfully (or unsuccessfully) navigated their education.

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Sources:

¹“Promising ESL Students Assisted on the Path to College,” by Joseph Gerth. 16 June 2012. Courier-Journal. Accessed 17 June 2012. http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120616/NEWS01/306160063/Promising-ESL-students-assisted-path-college?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1

For kids, the long summer days pose many opportunities for having fun with friends, relaxing, and watching TV. Unwinding from the stresses of the school year is an important use of summer time, but so is providing kids with learning opportunities to keep their brains engaged and ready to enter the next school year strong.

Too often, students, especially in low-income areas, aren’t involved in a summer learning program. Not because they are opposed to summer camps, workshops, or internships, but because of the limited opportunity, accessibility, and affordability of summer learning experiences in their area. Since many families and their school districts don’t have the financial resources to provide summer programs, other people, organizations, and institutions that value summer learning are stepping in to create innovative ways to get summer learning experiences to those who need it most.

This summer, Metropolitan State University of Denver is partnering with Denver Public Schools by offering a college philosophy course for high school students. During the traditional school year, many high school students choose to dually enroll in high school and college courses, giving them early exposure to college but adding pressure to their already busy schedules. This summer enrichment program gives students the same college experience as those who are dually enrolled, but at a time of the year where they can focus on the college experience and absorb what it is like.

As we continue to demand more of our students, new grads, and new hires, we need to support them with accessibility to learning that will help them get through high school, pursue college, and ultimately land a job. When families don’t have the resources to personally provide a summer learning opportunity for their children, K-12 leadership, community support, and partnerships between K-12 systems and universities need to lend a hand. Not providing learning opportunities to our students is not an option.

Dropping out of high school doesn’t only effect the individual. While students who drop out of high school will personally have less chances of employment, make lower incomes, and are most likely just a piece in the poverty cycle, they also represent a huge drain on our economic potential. On a larger scale, high school graduates and dropouts shape our economy, define the abilities of our workforce, and set the stage for our leaders of the future in business, industry, and government.

Even though “bridging the gap” has become a familiar phrase in education reform, the attention alone won’t  solve anything: we need action. Decades of research strongly suggests that the most effective education reform starts when kids are in preschool, where they are fed and taught in small groups, get home visits by teachers and have meetings with parents, and have teachers who make higher salaries, according to the article.

Our future depends on not only more graduates, but more successful graduates who are ready to succeed in the world of work and their lives as a whole. Starting early, staying consistent, and holding the bar high as students progress will provide a society with the brain potential, talent, and follow through to negotiate and leverage the global challenges that lie ahead.

Where do you begin when students start asking about the credit downgrade? What do you say when a student wants details on the national debt and wants to know what Congress is doing to solve the country’s problems?

The Learning Network (Teaching and Learning with the New York Times) recently compiled a list of New York Times resources that are great for teaching students about the crisis in the economy. Writer Holly Epstein Ojalvo divided the economic issues in two categories:

1. The National Debt and the Debt Ceiling:

Use the following resources to answer questions surrounding the subject of “What does it all mean?”

Times Topics: National Debt
An index of Times articles and multimedia about the national debt and the debt ceiling; includes a helpful Times-written overview.

Q. and A. on the Debt Ceiling
A “crash course in all things debt ceiling.”

Charting the American Debt Crisis
A set of charts illustrating how the national debt accumulated and other related topics

2. The Credit Downgrade:

The “downgrade” is all over the news, but what does a downgrade even mean? Use the following resources to explain the nation’s S&P credit rating.

Times Topics: Standard & Poor’s
Explains what the credit rating company does and provides background, as well as indexes related articles.

S.&P. Downgrades Debt Rating of U.S. for the First Time
News article about the credit downgrade.

FiveThirtyEight: Why S.&P.’s Ratings Are Substandard and Porous
Commentary and analysis by Nate Silver.

For even more resources, check out the full article “Teaching and Learning About the U.S. Debt Crisis and Credit Downgrade.”

LifeBound’s newest addition, Dollars and Sense: How to Be Smart About Money, gives students the tools they need to understand money. The book follows the six national financial literacy standards as created by the Jump$tart Coalition: Financial Responsibility and Decision Making, Income and Careers, Planning and Money Management, Credit and Debt, Risk Management and Insurance, and Saving and Investing. We will also offer online assessments, tests, and supplements on our website. Give teens the financial skills they need to avoid and get out of debt, invest smart, and create a financially secure life.