Welcome to the blog on summer learning. This is a place where we'll share current events and experiences in the field. You'll find entries from staff of the National Summer Learning Association, as well as others in the field. We encourage you to weigh in and let your voice be heard.
If you're not already an Association member, click Become a Member to join so that you can post comments on the blog.
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Summer School as a blueprint for education reform? |
Posted By Jeff Smink,
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
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One of the major debates raging in education policy circles
today deals with responsibility for increasing student academic achievement.
One side believes that schools should be the primary driver through a focus on
strong accountability, teacher quality, and assessments to measure progress.
Others argue for a more holistic approach that integrates community supports to
educate the whole child. In my view, this is a false choice—we need all of the
resources that both schools AND communities can bring to the table to make sure
students are successful, both academically and developmentally. Such a
collaborative approach does not mean we shouldn’t hold schools accountable
until poverty is eliminated, as some fear. Rather, it simply says that schools
and communities need to work together now to address all of the issues that
affect student success.
While it may be an unlikely source, we believe summer school
can provide the type of comprehensive programming necessary to address the
needs of students. The Association recently launched an initiative called New
Vision for Summer School that seeks to transform summer school into a space
that blends academics, enrichment, and community partnerships to engage students
and teachers alike. This new vision of summer school is a place that students
AND teachers want to be and not simply punishment for poor performance. And
it’s not a pie in the sky idea--several districts such as Pittsburgh Public
Schools will be implementing this vision this summer.
What is unique about the New Vision is that it can meet the
needs of the wide variety of education stakeholders described above. During a
six-week, full-day summer program, the following issues can be addressed: - Acceleration of learning for students that need
more time and/or extra help. However, instead of the traditional, remedial
model of instruction, summer provides an opportunity for more hands-on lessons
that can better engage students and teachers.
- Strong community partnerships that take
advantage of local expertise in content and youth development to make learning
fun
- Innovative professional development
opportunities for teachers and administrators to test new instructional
strategies and/or get leadership experience by running a summer program
- An opportunity to test and evaluate innovative
strategies to gauge impact and inform policy
We admit there is still work to be done to successfully
implement this vision across the nation. However, when we do, perhaps the new
vision for summer school can serve as a blueprint for education reform. After
all, why should education programs be comprehensive and engaging only during
the summer?
What are your thoughts? How can we take the best of summer
programs and integrate them into the school year? And how can we take the best
of school year programs and integrate into the summer?
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President’s budget supports summer data collection |
Posted By Ron Fairchild,
Monday, February 15, 2010
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There’s some great news in the President’s proposed budget
for summer learning!
In
the U.S. Department of Education's $738.8 million request for the Institute of
Education Sciences:
The
National Center for Education Statistics will add fall testing to the
data-collection schedule for the 2010 Early Childhood Longitudinal Study,
better known as ECLS. This would allow researchers to get a better handle on
"summer learning loss," the achievement dip that occurs when students
are out of school over the summer and which affects different population groups
differently.
This
is one of several recommendations that the Association made to the
Administration on easy and low-cost ways for the federal government to address
data collection needs on summer learning. What are some other areas of
research that you would like for us to identify?
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Summer Program Planning Webinar Series |
Posted By Susanne R. Sparks (Bell),
Thursday, February 04, 2010
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Last month we kicked off a series of six free webinars designed to help programs plan for the upcoming summer. I was excited to join my talented colleague, Erin Ulery, for this webinar. Drawing upon the Association’s recent publication, Summer Starts in September: A Strategic Summer Program Planning Guide, Erin reviewed the program planning timeline and what tasks program planners should address in January. (Erin and Sarah Pitcock, director of program quality, did an excellent job writing this exhaustive guide. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, do so!) Summer Starts in September is a quality resource that will serve you well for years to come. The cost is $43.95, but it is a free benefit with your organizational membership (Individual members receive a 10% discount). An individual membership costs $49. Webinar participants described the information as "very timely” and "very informative.” If you missed last month’s webinar, the next one, Summer Program Planning: Power in the People, is coming up on February 22 at 3 p.m. Eastern. And if that time isn’t convenient for you, we’ll post the recorded webinar for viewing afterwards. Erin will turn to the topics of staff recruitment and screening, and develop staff job descriptions. I’m going to share documents from the Summer Learning Day planning toolkit. Each webinar is held on the 21st of the month, except for instances where the 21st falls on a weekend. This date was selected as a monthly reminder as we count down to June 21, National Summer Learning Day. Start thinking now about how your program can use this national event to share the valuable work that you’re doing with the community. You can hold an event on Monday, June 21, or anytime that week or during the month of June. During each webinar I will offer tools, tips, and planning guidance for your Summer Learning Day event. Mark your calendar for the rest of the webinar series:
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Summer Linkages Lead the Way |
Posted By Brenda McLaughlin,
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
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Earlier this week, an Education Week article spotlighted the plight of community schools in trying to get the attention of policymakers as a key education reform strategy (See "Community Schools: Reform’s Lesser Known Frontier”). But it appears that 2010 may open doors for fans of community schools. The Obama administration’s approach to school reform is two-pronged: 1) a continued focus on accountability; and 2) linking schools with networks of social support – exactly what community schools do.
In order to capitalize on the Administration’s support and foster the growth of community schools, the author argues that we, as stakeholders, need to shift our thinking. She says, "Schools have to recognize that non-academic factors play a key role in determining academic outcomes, and service organizations have to reimagine themselves as actors in the education domain.”
As I read this quote (and by the way, I couldn’t agree more), I found myself pondering the great many summer program providers who are pioneers in living out this paradigm shift. These programs have carved out a niche for themselves as agents of change in a young person’s life, and as allies with both schools and families in support of a child’s academic achievement and healthy social, emotional and physical development. Might we put forth these "summer stars” as excellent models of collaboration? Take it from them, linkages make everybody’s life easier. In a recent NSLA publication sponsored by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and the Rhode Island Afterschool Plus Alliance, summer program providers offered these benefits to forming meaningful linkages between schools and community partners: - Better access to information about youth and families,
- Greater alignment in content and curriculum,
- More and varied enrichment offerings,
- Unique, yet complementary, staff skill sets and expertise,
- Greater variation in instructional delivery methods, and
- Increased likelihood of positive relationships with youth and families.
As legislators deliberate the merit and mechanics of the Full Service Community Schools Act and the "Promise Neighborhoods” initiative, I hope summer providers will share their knowledge and strategies in forging strong partnerships and embracing both academics and healthy development as core to their mission. Summer providers are natural allies to schools and communities. And they can fill a critical need in Promise Neighborhoods – continued learning opportunities during the summer months.
Who would you recommend as outstanding examples of summer collaborators?
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Summer and ESEA |
Posted By Ron Fairchild,
Monday, February 01, 2010
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There’s a very interesting story in today’s New York Times about the Obama administration’s planned changes to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. We’re planning to play a key role in ongoing discussions about how summer learning programs can be a stronger part of the administration’s reform priorities and changes they are hoping to make to categorical funding streams. We want to get "summer learning” mentioned in the law everywhere it talks about expanding time for learning and turning around low performing schools. What other priorities do you think we should have as these discussions move forward?
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Can community collaboration stretch your summer budget? |
Posted By Ron Fairchild,
Thursday, January 28, 2010
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Last week, I had the great pleasure of participating in a series of meetings in San Francisco hosted by Margaret Brodkin, who heads up an initiative called A New Day for Learning funded by the C.S. Mott Foundation. The meetings were designed to generate ideas for how a community can come together in the wake of serious cuts to summer school programs. Here are a few of the ideas that were generated: - The San Francisco Unified School District and the Department of Children, Youth and their Families are organizing a Summer Resource Fair for parents and children on March 6th.
- The head of the public library said his department could work with Rec and Parks, CBOs, and the school district to provide professional development for summer staff on literacy, bookmobile stops at programs, reading resources such as summer reading lists, staff visits to summer programs, and field trips to local libraries.
- The Arts Commission can mobilize community arts providers to support programs, and can help organize kids’ art shows and weekend culture clubs.
- Health and nutrition education and activities can connect to programs through the summer lunch program. Outreach to farmers markets, food banks, and other health-related programs can generate new summer program partners.
- California Academy of Sciences will be sharing resource kits, training providers, and organizing access to their institution.
- The San Francisco Opera is open to experimenting for the first time this summer with partnerships focused on summer learning.
What do you think about these ideas and what are some of yours? How can we get more cities engaged in this type of collaborative planning and inter-agency cooperation during the summer months?
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New Position at the National Summer Learning Association |
Posted By Ron Fairchild,
Friday, January 15, 2010
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Our association is hiring for a new policy director position.
This person will represent us in Washington, DC and will be available to our members in helping educate Congress and the Administration about the importance of quality summer learning programs. In particular, our new hire will focus on making sure that summer learning is a major focus area in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Here's a link to the job description.
Please help us with the search process by identifying qualified candidates and sharing the following job description with interested individuals.
Ron
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Time for School? |
Posted By Ron Fairchild,
Thursday, January 07, 2010
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I recently read an excellent article called "Time for School?" in the journal Education Next ( http://educationnext.org/time-for-school/). Dave Marcotte and Benjamin Hansen challenge schools and districts to view the school calendar as a tool, rather than a barrier, in the effort to improve learning outcomes for young people. What do you think about this?
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Welcome Message |
Posted By Ron Fairchild,
Thursday, January 07, 2010
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Welcome to our new summer learning blog! We are committed to making this blog a dynamic tool for sharing information about how to expand learning opportunities during the summer months. Everyone on our team plans to share their thoughts in this forum periodically. We hope you will do the same. Please take a few minutes to comment on recent news articles, make suggestions to your colleagues, and discuss your ideas for how we can ensure that every child has a memorable, enriching summer.
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