Over the past several months, the Association has been working closely with stakeholders across the country to develop recommendations for how summers can be used more strategically to help students successfully transition from middle school to high school. Last month, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we brought together more than 40 experts in the field in Tampa, FL, to examine the research on summers and the transition to high school, to pinpoint early warning indicators, to identify critical program components, and to discuss appropriate measures of success. The meeting was energizing and enlightening, and I look forward to updating you on what we heard after we finalize the meeting proceedings.
Since then, however, I have read two articles about another key transitional period that also coincides with summer. These articles have my wheels turning about what a unique opportunity we have to improve our summer supports.
In the first article, Rob Ivry of MDRC proposes scaling up summer bridge programs at community colleges to help college-bound but not college-ready youth take the prep courses they need to begin college on level. The summer between their junior and senior years, students who do not score high enough on college placement exams could simultaneously enroll in and complete remedial courses in areas of need – likely writing and math – and benefit from employment on the college campus – giving them a feel for what it will be like to be on campus as a student. Ivry suggests that stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act could be used to pay for the jobs in the bridge programs. He says,
Taking this idea to scale and evaluating its effectiveness will take political will and leadership; collaboration among school districts, community colleges, and the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) system (which controls the summer jobs program funding); and leveraged funding. But the effort will be worth it if we can reduce the number of students who need to take remedial courses when they go to college. Doing so will…put more young people on the path for further education, fulfilling careers, and economic security.
A second article called The Summer Flood talks about how the education pipeline springs a leak for low-income youth during the summer between high school and college. Most high schools stop serving youth at the point of graduation, and very few colleges provide formal summer bridge programs to help students matriculate from one setting to the other. Yet, even if they have already made it through the entire admission and financial aid process, a substantial portion of low-income high school graduates are still considering whether, how and where they will be able to attend college during that transitional summer. The authors say that despite national calls to conceptualize education as a seamless P-16 system, “students continue to decide about…higher education after existing theory and policy presume that the access process is complete.”
It seems to me that these articles – along with what we already know about how many students are lost during the middle to high school transition and the ninth grade in particular – provide a clear call to action. Summer providers have an obvious and powerful role to play in helping youth navigate across settings and systems. And transition year educators on both sides of the transition need to assume more ownership for ensuring youth move on successfully.
What other summer transition gaps need to gain more national attention? What programs are doing great work in helping youth bridge key summer transitions?
April 7th, 2010
How many of you have ever had someone say to you, “Field trips would be great, but we just don’t have the budget for them. We’ll have to do without (or with less) for this summer.”? Given the current economic climate, I imagine this is an all-too-familiar refrain. Yet, field trips play an important – and often underappreciated role – in a young person’s education. I was reminded of the essential role of field trips while presenting at a community meeting on Summer Learning (link http://www.stoplearningloss.org/#Workshop) in Grand Rapids, Michigan earlier this month.
Another presenter told the audience a story about a young man in his afterschool program. He realized, through conversation, that this young man had never been to the zoo, even though he was almost in high school. After reflecting on the rich experiences he personally had had at the zoo with his own son, who was much younger, he encouraged the young man to attend an upcoming field trip to the local zoo. Unfortunately, the young man wasn’t able to make it.
I’ve always appreciated that field trips expose youth to new places and experiences they might not otherwise have. But it had been a while since I really focused on how we learn, and the importance of building background knowledge. Your health, emotions, surroundings and actions while learning all figure prominently into how well you will recall information. And we all know how important recall is, particularly when you’re sitting down in front of a standardized test. Let me provide an example similar to the one the presenter offered to me:
Juan is 5th grader from a middle-class family, who enjoys summers filled with family trips, library visits, and a few weeks of camp. One of his favorite camp field trips last summer was to the zoo. Juan had been to the zoo several times before – but each trip helps Juan think about his dream career when he grows up, which is becoming a veterinarian. He is intensely interested in how the zookeepers care for the animals, and whether the animals seem happy in their habitats.
Jennifer is a 5th grader from a family living below the poverty line. During the summers, Jennifer helps her mother by taking care of her younger sister while her mom is at work. A neighbor checks in on Jennifer and her sister a few times each day, but Jennifer’s mom prefers that she and her sister stay indoors until her mother gets home from work each day around 6:30 p.m. Jennifer’s neighborhood has a reputation for being unsafe, and her mom’s first concern is that she and her sister are safe. Jennifer’s dream is to become a doctor when she grows up. She loves taking care of others and wants to learn how to help people stay healthy.
Juan and Jennifer both attend 5th grade at schools in the same city. Both are good students who typically try their best. Spring standardized testing is nearing, and both of their classes are reviewing science lessons on predator/prey relationships. When they sit down to take the standardized test, one of the questions is related to these science lessons; it reads:
Which of the following birds is the best example of a predator?
a. Seagull
b. Hawk
c. Sparrow
d. Macaw
As Juan reads the question, he pictures each of these birds in his mind. He’s seen sparrows in his neighborhood, seagulls at the shore, and both hawks and macaws at the zoo. He’s relaxed because the answer comes easily to him. Jennifer, on the other hand, is trying to think back to a time when they talked about birds at school. She thinks she’s seen a TV special about birds, but doesn’t have any personal experiences or references for any bird other than a sparrow. She’ll have to make her best guess, and she’s anxious that she doesn’t know the answer.
While this may be an oversimplified example of the power of field trips, it illustrates the point that we can’t view field trips as expendable – especially for youth living in poverty. It is only through experience, action, and emotional connections that our brains are wired for recall of information. If you don’t believe me, hang out with a few neuroscientists who focus on learning and the brain. A former neurologist turned middle school teacher, Judy Willis (link http://www.radteach.com/index.html) discusses exactly how the brain works in a recent ASCD article called What You Should Know About Your Brain (link http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el200912_willis.pdf). Not only can learning through action produce better and deeper connections, but it can also be more efficient. Without context, a young person may have to be taught the same concept over and over again before the information will stick.
So what does this mean for programs and their budgets? Perhaps a redefinition of field trips. Rather than extra niceties, field trips are really laboratories for learning. And they need to be treated as such. The National Summer Learning Association (perhaps we can link to a recent presentation Erin has done on this topic? Or to our planning guide, if it addresses field trip?) has exciting professional development workshops that help summer providers make the most of their field trips experiences. There are also great reference guides available for educators interested in designing learning-rich field trips.
As for Grand Rapids, they’re also doing their part to ensure summer program providers can transport young people to and from field trips at a low cost. The Rapid field trip program offers students and teachers transportation to and from key community institutions at a rate of $0.25 per child each way (Link http://www.ridetherapid.org/contactus drop down “Field Trip Request”.) Even better, transportation for parents and their children to and from the public library is FREE through the Ride to Read program (link http://www.grpl.org/blog/?p=1578).
What does your community or school do to support learning-rich field trips for all youth? What can we do better, or differently, to show the difference a field trip can make?
How many of you have ever had someone say to you, “Field trips would be great, but we just don’t have the budget for them. We’ll have to do without (or with less) for this summer”? Given the current economic climate, I imagine this is an all-too-familiar refrain. Yet, field trips play an important – and often underappreciated role – in a young person’s education. I was reminded of the essential role of field trips while presenting at a community meeting on Summer Learning in Grand Rapids, Michigan earlier this month.
Another presenter told the audience a story about a young man in his afterschool program. He realized, through conversation, that this young man had never been to the zoo, even though he was almost in high school. After reflecting on the rich experiences he personally had had at the zoo with his own son, who was much younger, he encouraged the young man to attend an upcoming field trip to the local zoo. Unfortunately, the young man wasn’t able to make it.
I’ve always appreciated that field trips expose youth to new places and experiences they might not otherwise have. But it had been a while since I really focused on how we learn, and the importance of building background knowledge. Your health, emotions, surroundings and actions while learning all figure prominently into how well you will recall information. And we all know how important recall is, particularly when you’re sitting down in front of a standardized test. Let me provide an example similar to the one the presenter offered to me:
Juan is 5th grader from a middle-class family, who enjoys summers filled with family trips, library visits, and a few weeks of camp. One of his favorite camp field trips last summer was to the zoo. Juan had been to the zoo several times before – but each trip helps Juan think about his dream career when he grows up, which is becoming a veterinarian. He is intensely interested in how the zookeepers care for the animals, and whether the animals seem happy in their habitats.
Jennifer is a 5th grader from a family living below the poverty line. During the summers, Jennifer helps her mother by taking care of her younger sister while her mom is at work. A neighbor checks in on Jennifer and her sister a few times each day, but Jennifer’s mom prefers that she and her sister stay indoors until her mother gets home from work each day around 6:30 p.m. Jennifer’s neighborhood has a reputation for being unsafe, and her mom’s first concern is that she and her sister are safe. Jennifer’s dream is to become a doctor when she grows up. She loves taking care of others and wants to learn how to help people stay healthy.
Juan and Jennifer both attend 5th grade at schools in the same city. Both are good students who typically try their best. Spring standardized testing is nearing, and both of their classes are reviewing science lessons on predator/prey relationships. When they sit down to take the standardized test, one of the questions is related to these science lessons; it reads:
Which of the following birds is the best example of a predator?
a. Seagull
b. Hawk
c. Sparrow
d. Macaw
As Juan reads the question, he pictures each of these birds in his mind. He’s seen sparrows in his neighborhood, seagulls at the shore, and both hawks and macaws at the zoo. He’s relaxed because the answer comes easily to him. Jennifer, on the other hand, is trying to think back to a time when they talked about birds at school. She thinks she’s seen a TV special about birds, but doesn’t have any personal experiences or references for any bird other than a sparrow. She’ll have to make her best guess, and she’s anxious that she doesn’t know the answer.
While this may be an oversimplified example of the power of field trips, it illustrates the point that we can’t view field trips as expendable – especially for youth living in poverty. It is only through experience, action, and emotional connections that our brains are wired for recall of information. If you don’t believe me, hang out with a few neuroscientists who focus on learning and the brain. A former neurologist turned middle school teacher, Judy Willis discusses exactly how the brain works in a recent ASCD article called What You Should Know About Your Brain. Not only can learning through action produce better and deeper connections, but it can also be more efficient. Without context, a young person may have to be taught the same concept over and over again before the information will stick.
So what does this mean for programs and their budgets?
Perhaps a redefinition of field trips. Rather than extra niceties, field trips are really laboratories for learning. And they need to be treated as such. The National Summer Learning Association has exciting professional development workshops that help summer providers make the most of their field trips experiences. There are also great reference guides available for educators interested in designing learning-rich field trips.
As for Grand Rapids, they’re also doing their part to ensure summer program providers can transport young people to and from field trips at a low cost. The Rapid field trip program offers students and teachers transportation to and from key community institutions at a rate of $0.25 per child each way. Even better, transportation for parents and their children to and from the public library is FREE through the Ride to Read program.
What does your community or school do to support learning-rich field trips for all youth? What can we do better, or differently, to show the difference a field trip can make?
March 26th, 2010
Earlier this week, an Education Week
article spotlighted the plight of community schools in trying to get the attention of policymakers as a key education reform strategy (See “Community Schools: Reform’s Lesser Known Frontier”). But it appears that 2010 may open doors for fans of community schools. The Obama administration’s approach to school reform is two-pronged: 1) a continued focus on accountability; and 2) linking schools with networks of social support – exactly what community schools do.
In order to capitalize on the Administration’s support and foster the growth of community schools, the author argues that we, as stakeholders, need to shift our thinking. She says, “Schools have to recognize that non-academic factors play a key role in determining academic outcomes, and service organizations have to reimagine themselves as actors in the education domain.”
As I read this quote (and by the way, I couldn’t agree more), I found myself pondering the great many summer program providers who are pioneers in living out this paradigm shift. These programs have carved out a niche for themselves as agents of change in a young person’s life, and as allies with both schools and families in support of a child’s academic achievement and healthy social, emotional and physical development. Might we put forth these “summer stars” as excellent models of collaboration? Take it from them, linkages make everybody’s life easier. In a recent
NSLA publication sponsored by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and the Rhode Island Afterschool Plus Alliance, summer program providers offered these benefits to forming meaningful linkages between schools and community partners:
- Better access to information about youth and families,
- Greater alignment in content and curriculum,
- More and varied enrichment offerings,
- Unique, yet complementary, staff skill sets and expertise,
- Greater variation in instructional delivery methods, and
- Increased likelihood of positive relationships with youth and families.
As legislators deliberate the merit and mechanics of the
Full Service Community Schools Act and the
“Promise Neighborhoods” initiative, I hope summer providers will share their knowledge and strategies in forging strong partnerships and embracing both academics and healthy development as core to their mission. Summer providers are natural allies to schools and communities. And they can fill a critical need in Promise Neighborhoods – continued learning opportunities during the summer months.
Who would you recommend as outstanding examples of summer collaborators?
February 3rd, 2010
