Planning Your Summer Program

Don't let the winter blues get you down. Summer is just around the corner and now is the time for you to take stock of your summer program goals and get your staff ready for an awesome summer!

How might you use data to improve your planning process? What training would benefit your team? Why not dive in now so you can take your program from Good to Awesome? The National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) has got you covered with these resources:

1) Summer Learning Program Quality Intervention Box Set

The Summer Learning Program Quality Intervention (SLPQI) is a comprehensive system for improving program quality, built around the Summer Learning Program Quality Assessment (PQA).

The SLPQI Box Set provides everything you need to assess the quality of your summer program, identify staff training needs, and ultimately use data for continuous quality improvement.

Additional free SLPQI resources can be found from the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality.

2) Summer Starts in September

For $95, the Summer Starts in September Program Planning Guide is your comprehensive summer learning program planning guide full of research-based strategies, program examples, and tools that you can use to develop an intentional and high-impact program.

Complete this brief survey to help NSLA identify which customized staff training will best support your program leaders as they engage staff in interactive trainings that focus on program quality, culture, and outcomes.

3) Summer Learning Literacy Assessments

In this resource , created in collaboration with The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, your team will explore the impact of summer learning loss on literacy, summer learning systems and data management, settings for summer literacy instruction, and much more.

4) Upcoming Webinars

Check out the sidebar for webinars this month to gain knowledge about community system-building and developing a college access program.

Learn more from NSLA's Program Toolbox.

New Vision for Summer School Spotlight

A Message from Kids Read Now

Kids Read Now is a non-profit organization whose mission is to eliminate the K-3 summer reading slide. Since 2010, Kids Read Now has delivered over 160,000 new books to help nearly 27,000 K-3 students build a love of reading.

How It Works:

In the spring, teachers help students pick nine books from a list of over 120 best sellers. Each school hosts a Family Reading Night where students get their first three books and parents learn how to help their kids over the summer. All books are free to families and help build a child's personal library collection.

Kids Read Now stays in touch with families through calls, texts, emails, or Facebook messages, asking which book their child read that week. After a response, Kids Read Now mails another book to the student's home, addressed directly to the child. Each student who reads all nine books gets a certificate when they return to school in the fall.

NSLA Special Offer:

School districts in the New Vision for Summer School Network will receive a five percent discount on the Kids Read Now summer reading program list price.

For more information on pricing and details on how to get Kids Read Now in your district, contact 877.536.0130 or email [email protected] .

Kids Read Now is a national partner of the New Vision for Summer School Network. Learn more.

Webinar on Community System-Building

SummerCollab has developed an award-winning summer learning system model that offers key resources such as a comprehensive curriculum, skilled staff, executive coaching, and data analysis tools and assessment to programs in Wilmington, DE.

Using site-specific quality improvement plans, SummerCollab helps hold programs accountable for the goals they have set while providing the supports needed to reach those goals.

Join NSLA in a webinar on February 22 at 2:00pm EST as the President and CEO of SummerCollab talks about their model and how they have been able to use it to help community centers execute high-quality learning experiences for low-income youth. You will also learn how you can bring this model to your own community.

Webinar on Higher Education "Game Plan"

In an upcoming webinar on February 27 at 2:00pm EST, NSLA, along with the Rutgers Future Scholars Program (RFS), will release a collaborative publication, the "Game Plan."

This webinar explores how higher learning institutions can join the movement to ensure that under-served, promising first-generation-to-college youth can achieve higher education goals through the stepping stones of pre-college summer programming, mentoring, and support.

Youth-serving organizations are encouraged to join this webinar.

Post Your Summer Learning Event!

Post your summer learning event or program on the 2018 Events Calendar.

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