Summer School: Worth Another Look

A Time to Revisit Summer School Programs.

A recent article appeared in the Naples (Florida) Daily News about a pilot summer program that extends the school year. The school, Parkside Elementary, had received a grade of “D” partly as a result of low student performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.  A look at the school’s demographics tells a more sobering story.  According to the report, 97% of the students at Parkside receive free or reduce lunch.  Additionally, of the approximately 830 plus students, two out of three are eligible for the school’s English Language Learners Program. This means that for about two thirds of the students, English is not their primary language.  Disadvantaged children need the extra help. If we are ever going to help them break the cycle of poverty, if we are ever going to enable them to “catch up” to their peers, then we need to investigate new and alternative methods for teaching them.

 To view  a classic example of successful student achievement that was led in part with innovative summer programs, take a look at the KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) academies.  KIPP, a public charter school program was founded by two alums of the Teach for America Program, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin. Their program initially targeted low income, at-risk students in Houston and included extended school days, Saturday classes and summer programs. For more information about the KIPP Academy, take a look at their web site, http://www.kipp.org/

When summer programs are discussed, two issues usually come to the forefront. The first is the cost. In the case of Parkside, the additional costs for this summer amounted to $500,000.  Sometimes grant funding is available. There is no wiggle room on this issue. If we want an educated population, we have to pay for it. Politicians can’t say they are for public education and then proceed to cut program funding.

The other issue is parents and summer vacations. Many families have planned for summer trips and getaways. Many believe that their children need a “rest” from school.   But without belaboring he point, the issue is choices and priorities. You may know that I mentioned this before, but Dr. Benjamin Rush, a physician in colonial Philadelphia and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, believed that in order for democracy to survive we had to have an educated population.

For additional reading please view that article that appeared in Education Week last year.

http://www.summerlearning.org/resource/resmgr/news/10.5.10.education_week__is_s.pdf

The National Summer Learning Association has a valuable web site with information and suggestions for viable summer school programs.  You can locate that at http://www.summerlearning.org/

Summer Reading for Students

Summertime is Reading Time

I recently saw a sign in front of a local elementary school. The sign on the marquis said “Have a relaxing summer.” Now I am sure that many of students who have just completed the school year worked very hard, did their homework, studies for exams and had a productive school year.  For their efforts they do deserve some down time. However, a number of studies have confirmed that there is a loss of knowledge and learning skills that occurs after a 12 week hiatus from school. (See: “The Effects of Summer Vacation on Achievement Test Scores: A Narrative and Meta-Analytic Review, “Review of Educational Research Fall 1996 66: 227-268,)doi:10.3102/00346543066003227  .   In fact many classroom teachers lament the fact that they have to spend the first   few weeks of every new school year reviewing prior learning and re- teaching concepts.

If there is anything that parents and teachers can do it is to encourage students read during their summer vacation. Although there are a number of school districts around the country that have summer reading lists for student, most schools do not.   There was a recent article that appeared in USA Weekend (June 17-19, 2011) entitled “Inspire your kinds to read.” The article discussed the website launched by writer James Patterson. The site www.readkiddoread.com is outstanding. It provides teachers and parents a wealth of resources for getting children to read.

The site provides a link for teachers with lesson plans for numerous children’s books.  You will also find reading lists broken down by age group. The list starts with illustrated books for very young children and moves up from there.  Many of the books are readily available from your local library. Parents may also want to consider summer reading clubs for their children where they can get together in an informal setting, talk about the books and share some refreshments.

There are multiple goals here.  One is to get children to like reading both for knowledge as well as enjoyment.  The other is to keep children’s minds active during the summer months so that when they return to the classroom in the fall they will be ready to learn.

Back in 1955 Rudolf Flesch wrote a most controversial book entitled “Why Johnny Can’t Read”, which began to reveal flaws in the way American school children were taught to read. In 1983 Flesch wrote a follow up book, Why Johnny Still Can’t Read, illustrating that almost 30 years later students still had difficulty in learning how to read. The crisis was more obvious with socio–economically students were not read to at home and many of these students never owned a book or even had a public library card.