School’s IN for Summer!?
By Ed Madison and Hans Boyle
For K-12 students across the country, tis’ the season to blare Alice Cooper’s 1972 single “School’s Out, ” or it would be under normal, pre-pandemic circumstances.
In a genuine sense, school has been out for months, though the past year and a half lacked the rebellious spirit and fun-loving attitude exuded in Cooper’s rock hit.
Unfortunately, lockdowns kept children at home for months, forcing them to attend class via Zoom. At best, students could participate in limited in-person sessions each week through hybrid learning programs.
In years past, students with means would be packing their bags for camp or a relaxing beach vacation. Educators would be fretting over the so-called “Summer Slide” — the waning of intent focus on reading and math skills during the academic year.
Educators now must contend with the more daunting and widespread “COVID Slide.” Children not only faced a significant academic learning loss this past year but a substantial loss in confidence and emotional resilience. For a good part of 2020, students couldn’t meet up and chat with friends in the same room or discuss learning challenges with their teachers face-to-face.
What’s more, the COVID slide is steeper for marginalized students and students from low-income families. These young people faced undependable Wifi connections or financial constraints after a parent lost a job. Of course, many students needed to recover from the virus itself or watched their relatives struggle to overcome its painful prognosis.
How can we even begin to help students get back on track? School districts nationwide are starting by creating the most robust summer school programs in years.
Now, this isn’t the kind of summer school you may be used to, with classes designed to help students recover credits solely from fall and spring terms. In many cases, privilege allows families in affluent communities options that are inconceivable for families that are just getting by. For instance, in recently fully reopened California, one school district plans to offer students nature hikes through wildlife preserves and sailing lessons at a local yacht club. Likewise, a San Francisco school district will arm students with bows and arrows for archery lessons at a local park.
School districts across the Golden State are expanding and revamping their summer learning programs with the help of American Rescue Plan dollars (a total $122 billion). States must invest at least $1.2 billion of these funds on “evidence-based summer enrichment programs,” as outlined by the Department of Education.
“Let’s use this moment to reimagine what fun, engaging summer programming can look like,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement announcing his department’s National Summer and Learning Collaborative. The initiative aims to develop educational programs to make up for lost instructional time during the pandemic.
Across the country, school districts are seizing on summer as an opportunity to re-engage disconnected and disheartened students. In South Bend, Indiana, educators will bring back elementary and middle school summer programs for the first time in years. According to officials there, administrators expect a 50 to 60 percent increase in their high school program enrollment.
Many of these programs go beyond simply earning recovery credits and improving math and reading skills. One Joseph County, Indiana elementary school plans to have students study and hatch butterflies. Another program will see students partner with the Humane Society for hands-on learning.
Undeniably, engagement is the key here. Policy makers, educators, and administrators know the first step in reacclimating students to the classroom this summer is reigniting student’s passion for learning, a passion perhaps depressed from staring at our screens for months on end (zoom fatigue is real).
These summer enrichment programs should also be an opportunity to rethink how we capture students’ attention. Think how often your interests were honored in the classroom when you were a sixth-grader? In all likelihood, your teacher was constrained by a rigid curriculum to allow you time to pursue these interests, whether they be the life cycle of butterflies or sailing.
We’re not advocating that reading and math assignments be eliminated in favor of sunset sailing. However, we are suggesting more emphasis on placing students in the driver seat of their own learning.
Take journalistic learning, a pedagogical approach that taps into students’ intrinsic interests through self-directed, project-based storytelling. Journalism is not just a profession but a way of thinking critically and is the perfect vehicle for exploring one’s passions in or outside the classroom. Think of all the events our students witnessed this past year and a half: a contested election, widespread racial justice protests, and of course, a devastating pandemic.
Children are interested in these topics too, and they want to talk about them in the classroom. The Journalistic Learning Initiative’s Effective Communicators course gives students the time and guidance to have these discussions and the time to pursue their passions while elevating their writing and communication skills.
Yes, we’re halfway through June, the sun’s shining, and summer’s official start date is fast approaching. Hopefully, this season, we can start decompressing from last year’s immense challenges. But at the same time, summer may just be the season for K-12 students to re-engage and reconnect.
