Summer Fun...and Summer School?
As the school year winds to a close and kids face 2 ½ months of summer freedom ahead, many parents will be concerned about how the big summer break will affect their child's academic learning and, ultimately, test scores come September.
Experienced teachers complain that summer learning loss is a very real problem. Experts estimate that anywhere from one to 2 ½ months of the previous academic year's learning will be lost – and have to be regained – by the beginning of the next school year. Sally A., a Sylvan Learning Center representative who has also worked with children in the public school system, says, "It's like the whole month of September you're playing catch up, even into October. Some kids are fine, but then there's the other extreme."
For parents who worry that their child might be one of the many who will struggle to catch up in the fall, could summer school be the solution?
In some states, summer school enrollment has reached record highs in recent years due to high failure rates on standardized tests. Failing standardized tests in math and reading can jeopardize a student's chances of moving on to the next grade. Some states, like New York, have even instituted "mandatory" summer school for its failing students, of which more than 40,000 have been "ordered" to attend this summer. These students must pass math and reading tests in August in order to be promoted to the next grade.
Besides failing grades, some parents (and students) choose to attend summer school for other reasons: for fear of falling behind, or to stay competitive with peers who will be competing for places at top-tier colleges a year or two down the road.
How can a parent determine whether their child would benefit from attending summer school? Many parents will be notified by their children's school districts that there child is eligible and encouraged to attend summer school. For those that aren't, Sally A. suggests, "If you feel that in the past they've had that kind of [significant] summer slip, it would be good to take them in and get an assessment done." Some learning centers, like Sylvan, offer assessments which can pinpoint subject areas in which a child may be weak. They then offer individualized programs designed to focus exclusively on helping the student overcome specific trouble spots. The downside to such focused and quality individual attention is that it comes at a financial cost to the parents.
On the other hand, learning does not only take place in the classroom. While a formal summer school setting can certainly help some students, others who don't need a lot of specific help in core subject areas might benefit more from other enrichment programs, academic and non-academic alike. With summer camps, sports programs, arts and music programs, and even local library-sponsored summer reading programs, there are plenty of educational – and fun – opportunities for kids during the summer. Organizations like the YMCA, as well as local Community Centers and Community Education programs, often offer interesting and fun activities that can help keep kids stimulated and learning, while offering a break from the formal class environment and schedule.
Whether your child finds himself in school this summer or not, remember to make healthy doses of fun activities available as well!
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Comments from readers
As the VP Corporate partners for Woogi World, I know exactly how important it is to provide useful tools for teachers, children and parents to use during the very important summer months.
In fact, Steve Forbes, publisher of Forbes magazine has written an article presenting the value and importance of summer education for children of socioeconomically challenged environments. In the April 13, 2009 issue of Forbes magazine, Mr. Forbes discusses among other things, the Harlem Village Academies in New York.
Here, students spend more hours in class and have a shorter summer break than do those in public schools. In the most recent statewide testing of eight grade students’ math skill, Harlem Village Academies’’ kids pulled off a coup; Every student passed. Compare that with their Harlem peers in public schools. Only 4% passed.
What is the lesson learned? The idea that low income children can’t learn as well as their more affluent peers because of environmental and economic disparity is nonsense. Children benefit from intellectual stimulation on an ongoing basis. During the summer, low income children without access to stimulating summer camps, academic activities, music programs and the like, loose a lot of what has been learned and start the following year a little behind their more affluent students.
But all of this can be addressed, this year through a program started by iKeepSafe.
iKeepSafe, a leader in Internet Safety and creator of award-winning Internet educational content and Woogi World, the industry’s first ever kid’s virtual world integrated with standards based curriculum, have partnered to launch the country’s first Virtual Summer School program…Summer Splash
What iKeepSafe has done is combine standards based curriculum with the power of a proven virtual social environment, Woogi World. Children love to participate and work hard to achieve in this virtual world. Summer Splash has been created to allow educators to immediately implement a program, this summer, to eliminate the loss of educational activity during the long summer experienced by those in urban settings.
Here is what Summer Splash is providing to schools nationwide this summer:
• A program specifically designed to stop summer slide in an innovative and creative manner that meets all of the criteria for the current early stimulus package funding.
• Summer School curricula based on standards recommended by organizations that represent education by subject matter (e.g., the National Sciences Resource Center for science) and, because we are virtual, students, teachers, and parents receive the same high-level program nationwide, no matter what state or district.
• Assembled content tied to national standards and all on/offline activities linked and tracked online, student progress or lack thereof is easily and quickly recognized. This real-time assessment is more beneficial to student progress than traditional end of subject testing. Schools’ performance can therefore also be more easily recognized and rewarded for improvement.
• Helps districts and schools meet NCLB, AYP, Internet safety training for E-rate requirements, and the Five Standards for Effective Pedagogy.
• Validated by associated research projects through Harvard Medical School, the University of Maryland, and the Rochester Institute of Technology to track and verify student progress, teacher development, and parent involvement.
At a cost 93% below the average summer school program, Summer Splash is exactly the type of innovative and scalable program the Department of education is looking to fund.
I urge all parents, educators and supporters of education to find out more about Summer Splash and how to get this program in your district today.
Eric Clare
eclare@woogiworld.com