Summer is a season to relax away from school and have fun. But what if parents enrolled their children to an academic summer camp where they still have to study subjects that they hate? Students in Montgomery County are finding out that learning during summer can be fun too.
The Washington Post reports a five-week summer program organized by the Montgomery County government, the school system, Norman and Ruth Rales Foundation and the Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL). The camp program consists of math and literacy lessons with field trips, theater and dance performances, art immersion, technology integration, soccer games, Lego building and poetry sessions.
Students of the program are composed of incoming third and fourth graders, on their way to the critical years of early education, as per The Washington Post. This year, over 1,000 children are enrolled in the Montgomery program and there's more than a 90 percent daily attendance rate.
The classes are spearheaded by teachers and teaching assistants with two people assigned for every 20 students. The main aim of the summer program is to narrow the achievement gap between the black and Hispanic studentry and the white student population. It also addresses the "opportunity gap" wherein poorer students have fewer means for summer learning (via The Washington Post).
The Washington Post says that the summer program would last for four years with a goal to educate 4,200 children over the course of four summers. So far, the young students love their lessons because they get to play while learning. It feels like school but much more fun, according to some student feedback.
According to Northwest Evaluation Association, 75 percent of a student's achievement is attributed to experiences outside the classroom. This includes the yearly summer vacation that research shows is the time when the achievement gap widens among students.
In National Summer Learning Association's infographic, the achievement gap between children from rich and poor families is 30 to 40 percent bigger for 2001 babies than those born twenty-five years ago. As per ASCD, the phenomena has grown through the years because education success has become more strongly associated to economic success. This is why well-to-do families invest on their children's education seven times as much as low-income families.
During the summer, more high-income families could afford books and advance lessons for their children whereas low-income families have very few resources. The children from poor families experience what is called the "Summer Slide" when they will fall behind from rich students who use the summer season to develop skills (via National Summer Learning Association).
Montgomery's summer program aims to help the less privileged and at the very least equal the level of achievement of children coming from aforementioned social classes. As per National Summer Learning Association, the effects of learning during summer last for two years after the child's enrollment.
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