SCARY!

One of the biggest threats to academic excellence in Berwyn is Summer Learning Loss. Research tells us that ALL kids are at risk of losing months of progress over the summer, but that low-income kids are particularly vulnerable when it comes to reading skills. Consider that a 3rd grader who leaves school in June at a 3.9 level will likely return in September at a 3.8 level leaving the 4th grade teacher to spend precious weeks reviewing before even starting the grade level material in the curriculum. Also, while middle income and wealthy kids usually show some gains in reading over the summer, low-income kids LOSE an average of 2 months over the summer.

Think of it in terms of running. If a person can run a 5K in June and then takes the summer off from running, how far might they be able to run on September 1st? It is the same with reading. Without practice, kids LOSE SKILLS.

So what is Berwyn CARES doing to help? Last spring, I wrote this blog about the risk of summer learning loss for our Berwyn students. The statistics are alarming and several people contacted me to see how we could make a difference. As a result, BerwynCARES held its first Book Drive last month. We've collected hundreds of books appropriate for summer reading for kids up to 5th grade.

We have prepared 10 Summer Reading Kits for each elementary school. The kits are simply a canvas bag of books grouped by grade level. Principals, librarians or reading specialists will distribute to students at their discretion.

In the article Bridging the Summer Reading Gap, McGill-Franzen and Allington present one solution to the problem of Summer Learning Loss.

"Children need to read outside of school. Research clearly shows that the key to stemming summer reading loss is finding novel ways to get books into the hands of children during the summer break."

It is our hope that giving kids books to take home with them on the last day of school will result in continued progress over the summer. Check back on this blog next week for more information about Summer Learning Loss in Berwyn and what is being done to prevent it.