Monday, June 28, 2010

Summertime, and the schoolin' ain't easy...

Interesting article in today's Washington Post on new ways of looking at summer school. 1 in 4 American students attends a "summer learning program." But there's a still a great stigma attached to summer school, and it isn't just from the students' perspective, either. Parents are often loathe to send their kids back to school over the summer, reasoning that June-July-August is a time for relaxation, for getting away from school, etc. etc.

As the article points out, summer school takes many forms, and is not necessarily a remedial environment. Many summer school programs are enriching, offering students curriculum choices unavailable during the academic year.

But it's more serious than that. "Summer learning loss" is a real problem -- students who arrive back in classrooms in September having forgotten far too much from the previous year. For teachers, that means that the new year doesn't necessarily pick up where the old one left off. Rather, there is often too much time spent reviewing what summer vacation erased.

Many Walch programs and materials are specifically designed for use during summer school. We've long recognized that learning is a flexible concept; it doesn't magically begin when the first leaves fall or end when the yellow buses pull away. Increasingly, we're seeing school districts across the country extend and broaden their academic calendars, to provide alternatives for students who simply need more.

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