It’s National Summer Learning Day on June 21st! This advocacy day aims to spread awareness of the critical role learning plays in the summer months for kids from all backgrounds and socioeconomic standing.

Why is summer learning so important? Research shows:

• All young people experience learning loss when they are not engaged in a summer learning activity.
• Most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills over the summer months.
• Only about 10 percent of students nationwide participate in summer school or attend schools with non-traditional calendars.

There are many ways parents can give students summer learning experiences, from no cost/low cost experiences to structured day camps.

• Get creative. If you need creative summer learning ideas for students of any age, try searching on Pinterest for low or no cost learning. Do you have a piece of chalk and a young child who needs some educational entertaining while you work in the yard? Try this gardening activity, and follow creator Cathy James on Pinterest.

• Take a summer class. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a great no-cost way for older students to keep their brain engaged during the summer months, while learning some new skills they don’t get in middle or high school. Share the top MOOC providers, like Udacity, Coursera, EdX, and Udemy, with your kids. There are also many day camp options in your community. For National Summer Learning Day, LifeBound is offering a 50% discount on our 5-day summer enrichment workshops in July.  Check out the Summer Learning Day activities and deals happening in your area by clicking on the map below.

•  Get outside. It’s summer time, so take advantage of the farmer’s markets, festivals, fairs, and the outdoors. There’s always something to be learned when you step out the door and try something new.

These are just a few ideas to keep kids occupied with valuable learning experiences through the summer months. Please share your ideas and tips on how you balance summer with learning and fun.

Children from low-income families tend to fall behind their more affluent peers in every stage of life. They are less likely to be prepared to enter school at age 5, achieve academic and social competencies by the end of elementary schools graduate from high school with good grades, no crime involvement, or teen pregnancy, or achievement equivalent income in their twenties.[i] 

 

Look at all the cognitive elements in the reading comprehension framework and it becomes obvious why students who have minimal access to books and spoken language in the home fall behind. An exposure to language is how students learn to form sentences, understand new words and build vocabulary, and comprehend what is being spoken or read. Without a book or someone to share a book with, a child doesn’t get experience deciphering new words, understanding phonemes, and structuring language.

Though putting a book on a bookcase, understanding that a book is read from left to right, or chewing on a book are deceptively simple steps down the road to literacy when compared to the complexity of reading comprehension skills, literacy is rarely achieved in households that don’t have access to literature. In fact, reading aloud is known to be the most important activity that leads to literacy and determines a student’s reading success through the rest of their life.[ii]

Parent involvement is critical in early childhood development. Before the first school bell rings, 90 percent of brain development has occurred between birth and age 5.[iii] It’s no wonder why children in poverty, who hear as many as 30 million fewer words than their more affluent peers before the age of 4, are kept at a perpetual academic disadvantage. [iv]

According to the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, their research shows 37 percent of children entering kindergarten are not prepared with the skills they need to learn. Research also shows that an academic setback in kindergarten makes it very difficult for students to ever catch up.[v] The quality of a student’s early childhood education is strongly correlated with their high school success.

Email me at caroljcarter@lifebound.com if you are interested in learning more about how you can bring summer learning to your community.

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

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.

Summer learning losses are a real threat to all students entering the summer months. Providing kids with educational games, activities, materials, and experiences during their summer vacation is crucial in retaining information learned during the school year and preparing them for the transition into next year.

Kids who aren’t involved in summer learning activities suffer the greatest learning losses in math and reading. Underprivileged students who have less learning resources available to them during the school year and the summer months are put at an increased disadvantage, setting them back from their more affluent peers and increasing the achievement gap. Low-income parents who aren’t involved often suffer in exposure, awareness, and sometimes their own opportunity to prepare for the GED, community college, or better employment.

Due to the tightness of teacher and school resources, no matter how much student success is a priority, the school systems can’t shoulder all the responsibility of improving learning circumstances for their students. But that doesn’t suggest students have no options. Many communities and foundations are stepping forward to support students with free or affordable supplementary programs. As more graduates enter the workforce underprepared for the working world, advocates for student achievement, engagement, and success have moved beyond school walls and infiltrated communities, businesses, and families that rely on successful citizens who propel our society forward.

LifeBound is launching a summer reading program with the Omaha Public Library this summer to get books in the hands of  1,000 students who otherwise will approach a summer without learning resources that keep their brains engaged and ready to start the next school year strong. The role of the public library is being redefined across the country, with some providing computer skills, programs for the homeless, basic supplies for impoverished families, and more. As a place of refuge for many, libraries are answering the call to help educate our communities. One of our trainers will be working with library staff to facilitate enrichment classes for students, sessions for parents, and Friday night “Lock In” events for eighty targeted at-risk youth who will receive dinner and exposure to an educational event. This is just one of many examples LifeBound is involved with this summer to bring reading enrichment to students who would otherwise go without.

LifeBound’s books do more than develop reading skills; they help students develop the social and emotional skills they need to be successful in school, career, and life. As students learn more about themselves, they learn to embrace rigor and challenge and become better students. The manager of Whole Child Programs at ASCD says, “you will find an 11 percent increase” in students’ academic achievement with the implementation of a social and emotional learning component.¹ Based on that 11 percent increase, we can build a strong foundation for students making the transition to middle school, high school, and college. Our hope is that those students can become the peer mentors and role models for younger students in their housing projects or neighborhoods, showing by example the power of summer reading.

__________________________________________________________________________

Sources:
¹“Raising Stellar Students About More Than Getting Top Grades,” by Julie Rasicot. 11 May 2012. Bethesda Magazine. Accessed on 15 May 2012. http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Blogs/Education-Matters/May-June-2012/Raising-Stellar-Students-About-More-Than-Getting-Top-Grades/

For low-income kids, the oncoming summer vacation can bring forth different feelings than it does for privileged students. Due to a lack of accessibility, availability, and financial resources, low-income students often don’t have equal summer learning opportunities as privileged students, which contributes to increased summer learning losses and puts them at a disadvantage at the start of each new school year. Some of these students care for younger siblings all summer. Others play the role of parent to parents who may struggle with addiction or other issues. Others are in foster families or are raised by a grandparent because their parents are in prison or not fit to raise them.

This year, teen unemployment rates are soaring between 23.2 – 23.8 percent ¹, which may prove to be even more problematic for low-income teens looking to work more hours to contribute to the family, make money for the upcoming school year, or to simply keep busy and off the street.

Many communities offer a number of ways for students to learn and grow this summer.  In some cities, like Denver, La Casa/Quigg Newton Medical Facility is promoting reading by distributing LifeBound books to parents and students who are their patients.  Many of these Spanish speaking patients are encouraged to read with their kids, improving both their English language skills and their overall literacy. Public libraries are reinventing themselves as well. The Omaha Public Library is running a youth program for more than 1700 students including some programs for parents. Housing Projects, which have been hit hard by a dip in federal funds for GED, computer skills, and financial literacy classes, are discovering new ways to promote reading and learning.

Beyond these initiatives, parents, and students can use the following ideas to make a summer activity schedule. Educators who work in low-income area can use the following ideas to generate a specific list of things to do in their students’ area during the summer months that keep them active, learning, and growing in diverse and challenging ways:

Sources:

¹High Teen Unemployment Could Hurt Future Job Growth,” by Danielle Kurtzleben. 15 March 2012. US News. Accessed on 23 April 2012. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/03/15/high-teen-unemployment-could-hurt-future-job-growth