In April 2018, the California Summer Matters Network (CSMN) conducted a survey to learn about its effectiveness, specifically about how well collaboration among partner organizations can achieve the goal to increase the number and quality of free or low-cost summer learning programs across California by facilitating strategic connections of summer learning supporters.
Game Learning is an educational video game development company that believes fun and education should go hand in hand. They’ve released two games: Roanoke: The Lost Colony and Boston: Road to Revolution, and they have 60 more games under development.
Summer Matters Superhero Award recipients are leaders who put energy and resources into summer learning, not because they have to, but because they are convinced that EVERY child matters and EVERY child can succeed with the right support and foundation.
With many students losing two to three months of progress in reading and math skills over summer, it’s necessary to offer stimulating outings that are fun and academic. Discovery Cube provided the opportunity for Elizabeth to expand her knowledge of science in a cool environment with other likeminded students. She was better equipped to begin the 2017 school year and has the inspiration to pursue her dream of becoming a surgeon.
Summer learning programs are distinctively different from traditional summer school programs. For Nazaneen Khalilnaji-Otto, the Summer Matters campaign director at the Partnership for Children and Youth, one word sums up the difference between the summer learning model and summer school: “fun.” Summer learning takes on a “camp-like culture,” and these programs are generally open to all students, rather than only students seeking remedial or advanced coursework.
Making History’s goal, said Rachel Reinhard, the executive director of the Berkeley history project, is to help teachers explore local history “as an entry point to understand national and international trends” while giving students “new eyes for looking at the communities they live in.” She said for students from low-income East Oakland, a jumping off point for discussion might be the Oakland Community School, a free school, cherished by the neighborhood, that the Black Panther Party started on a church property at the height of its influence in the mid-1970s.
Currently, over 400 programs operating across the state receive about $130 million annually from Washington. But as Trump seeks to shrink the federal government’s role in education, he’s trying to claw back that funding, arguing that the programs don’t actually boost student achievement like they’re supposed to.
The Summer Matters Road Trip was huge this year! We traveled to programs in 15 different cities, spreading the word about the importance of summer learning. But don’t take our word for it, check out the media coverage of several of the stops on the road trip.
Studies show the detrimental effects of summer learning loss. According to the National Summer Learning Association, some children experience one to three months of reading loss during the summer, a phenomenon that affects mainly low-income students without access to academic materials when not in school.
Creating places that feel safe for students has been the raison d’être of summer programs like Aim High, as it has been for hundreds of after-school programs in school districts across the state. Yet for many school principals who are casting about for ways to improve students’ sense of physical and emotional safety — and in doing so, students’ interest in being at school and learning — the idea of calling on summer school and after-school experts hasn’t occurred to them. But that is starting to change.
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