It's no surprise that students lose some of their academic learning over the summer break. Teachers, parents, and academic experts have been trying to fight back by finding enrichment programs to keep children's minds engaged every summer.
According to the Rand Corporation, "More recent studies have confirmed that academic progress slows during the summer for all children. But it slows more for lower-income students. They tend to learn less during the summer than their higher-income classmates. They also are less likely than their higher-income classmates to spend their summers in art or music classes, to travel, or to visit a museum or library."
This leads us to wonder: What has the time outside of classroom caused by Covid-19 caused? Students in public Santa Ana schools have been learning virtually since March 2020. Now that the classrooms are opening again, will our students be able to keep up with grade-level subjects?
“What teachers are going to face in their classrooms when school resumes is a lot of variation in what students are ready for, much more variation than they're used to,” said Jennifer McCombs, a senior policy researcher and director of the Behavioral and Policy Sciences Department at RAND in a recent report.
Outside support from Learning Programs can be Key
It has gotten to the point that a student who's fallen behind academically will not be able to catch up in a traditional school year without outside support. The RAND Corp followed 3,000 low-income students who were invited to a high-quality free summer program that offered both academic and enrichment support.
They found that those children did better on their math tests, compared with the control group, with an average gain equal to around 15 percent of a typical school year.
La Semilla plans to be a part of the support for students in Santa Ana, and we aim to offer that high quality support throughout the school year, not just the summer. To do this, we need your support. Become a tutor today, and be a one on one aid to our children. Or, if you want to help financially, become a donor and allow us to expand our offerings to more children.
We want to stop that Covid slide. Be a partner with us today.
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