Summer learning » Carol J. Carter

LifeBound Joins the Summer Learning Day Movement, June 21!

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 percentÂ 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.

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Education Equity: Involving Students, Parents, Community this Summer

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]Â

This summer, LifeBound is working to equalize summer learning opportunities for students by assisting communities, organizations, school districts, and individuals in creating a summer learning solution that fits their students’ needs. Early and consistent intervention is key to student success.
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Leadership & Critical Thinking for Teens: LifeBound’s Summer Learning Workshop Series

Leadership Students
Hard at Work
9-12 Grade Students in Mastery of Leadership
Annette and Allegra Demonstrating an Activity
Class Discussion Notes on the Board
The Human Knot
Beginning of the Human Knot

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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.

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The Solution to Closing the Achievement Gap

It’s a fact. If students don’t exercise their brains over the summer months, they can lose up to three months of reading and math skills gained over the last school year. Low-income students are at the highest risk for summer learning losses, as they have less learning opportunities afforded to them over their summer vacation.

Summer learning programs can be as simple as giving a child books to read over the summer. Or they can be formally offered through a community center, school, church, or neighborhood to serve many kids in the community. In Baltimore County, the number of homeless students has doubled in the last five years. Homeless students are likely to suffer summer learning loses at twice the rate of their nonhomeless peers.^ÂThat’s why Camp St. Vincent is offering a summer learning program for homeless students in the area. Their summer students are beating the odds and walking away from camp retaining more than 80 percent of their reading and math skills.Â ¹
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Innovative Summer Learning: K-12 Schools Partner with University

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.
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Leadership from the Medical Community for Low-Income Students: LifeBound and La Casa/Quigg Newton Family Health Center Promote Reading, Literacy and Opportunity

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.

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Redefining Community Roles: Omaha Public Library Is a Model for Summer Learning

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 arenâ€™t involved often suffer in exposure, awareness, and sometimes their own opportunity to prepare for the GED, community college, or better employment.
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Opportunities for Low-Income Students: Summer Learning and Work Which Turns to Gold

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 percentÂ 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.

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Riding the Waves of High Teen Unemployment: Turning the Tide in Turbulent Waters

Teens enjoy using their summer months to unwind from the long academic year, but many also expect to spend summer working a summer job, or increasing the hours at their part-time job, to save money, get experience, and have something structured to do. And these are the lucky students who have the luxury of being able to get a “legitimate” job. Â Many disadvantaged students living in the housing projects or at poverty level will be struggling to avoid street temptations and other fast ways to earn money. This year almost one out of four American teens ages 16 to 19 were unemployed in February. On average, over the last 20 years, teens have held a steady unemployment rate of between 14 and 18 percent. The teen unemployment rate in 2012 has reached 23.2 to 23.8 percent.¹

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Promoting Nonfiction Literacy Standards Is a Collaborative Effort

Most states are adopting the new Common Core Standards, requiring that students’ reading curriculum include more rigorous and nonfiction materials. In fact, the goal is to have 70 percent of a student’s reading come from informational texts by graduation, according to the article “New Literacy Standards Could Challenge Even Passionate Readers.”Â This shift in reading content is aimed at helping build reading skills students will need in college, career and throughout their lives.

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Leadership Students

Hard at Work

9-12 Grade Students in Mastery of Leadership

Annette and Allegra Demonstrating an Activity

Class Discussion Notes on the Board

The Human Knot

Beginning of the Human Knot