This post is authored by Don Peek, a former educator and past president of the training division of Renaissance Learning. He now runs
Summer --- What Are
Your Plans?
I’ve never been a proponent of year-around school. Yes, I grew up on a farm, but even in the
‘50’s and ‘60’s we didn’t stay home from school to harvest crops. Yet, even today we run most American schools
on an agrarian calendar. It’s great for
teachers and administrators to have a break.
It’s not even too bad for above-average students. It is near catastrophic for many at-risk and
disabled students.
Where above average students might grow from 1.2 to 1.4
years in math and reading in a 9-month school year and lose only .2 to .3 years
of growth over the summer, weaker students during a good year grow as much as
.7 or .8 of a year in math and reading, but lose up to .3 to .4 of that growth
in the summer. That’s the reason
year-around school and summer school is a good thing for weaker students.
Unfortunately, not many schools provide these programs
throughout the summer for those students who need it. If these students hope to stay even or to
catch up some during the summer, either parents or some really good teachers
need to lay out plans for at-risk and learning disabled students for the summer
break.
Fortunately, some excellent on-line curricula are available
over the Internet. The best of these
even combine fun and games with the lessons to keep students interested and
moving forward. I’ve often wondered how
much better off our students would be today if every video game required
players to learn one or more vocabulary words between each level of play. What a small price to pay to slay more
dragons, visit more enchanted lands, or to save the princess.
In addition, these students need to visit the school or
public library at least once each week.
Parents need to help children pick books that highly interest them but
are on an appropriate level for maximum growth.
To be able to do that, teachers should make student reading levels very
clear to parents and even provide book lists including only books in an
appropriate range for each student for summer reading. Parents should choose additional books to
read to their children.
Unfortunately, many parents of at-risk and learning disabled
students cannot or will not provide these types of activities for their
children. Unless a school, community, or
church program picks up the slack, we are essentially saying that we will
accept these summer losses, and we are powerless to do anything about it. If that is the case in your school and
community, I’d say it’s a sad comment on the state of our society.
Be that as it may, the important thing is for you make
yourself aware of what is available on the Internet, at the various libraries,
and at the school and within the community and make sure that your at-risk and
learning disabled students take full advantage of these opportunities. Not only will it keep them from having a
typical boring summer, it will also
help to keep them from losing up to half of the gains they made throughout the
regular school year.
These students struggle enough without us building a
calendar that penalizes them each year.
While it looked for a while that schools might gravitate toward
year-around calendars, that concept seems to have lost most of its
traction. Since most schools will not
lose the summer vacation, it is vital that we provide at-risk and learning
disabled students with structured programs during the summer so they don’t fall
further behind other students.
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Grant Info:
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Grant Info:
Grant Name: Bikes
Belong Grant Program
Funded by: Bikes Belong Coalition
Description: The Bikes Belong Grant Program strives to
put more people on bicycles more often by funding important and influential
projects that leverage federal funding and build momentum for bicycling in
communities across the U.S. These projects include bike paths and rail trails,
as well as mountain bike trails, bike parks, BMX facilities, and large-scale
bicycle advocacy initiatives.
Program Areas: Health/PE
(while this program is not specifically for students with disabilities,
I believe it is very inclusive and can be very beneficial for disabled students)
Recipients: Public School, Higher Education, Other
Proposal Deadline: 6/29/2012
Average Amount: $10,000.00
Telephone: 303-449-4893
Availability: All States
