Swimming lessons, field trips to museums, and building model rockets can make a memorable summer camp experience. A national education program is also using these activities, to help Atlanta Public Schools students remember their math and reading skills.
Horizons Atlanta is partnering public universities and prestigious private schools with public schools in lower-income communities to provide engaging summer learning experiences for kids. With five sites open this summer, Atlanta has one of the largest concentrations of Horizons programs in the country. The program aims to stop the “summer slide,” the loss of reading and math skills while school is out for summer.
Most kids lose math skills over summer vacation, but reading skills tend to increase for higher-income students. “For low-income children, summertime is the time when they lose skills in reading and math, two to three months every summer, and it’s cumulative,” said Lorna Smith, executive director of Horizons National. “By the time they are in the fifth grade they will have lost two and a half years of reading and math skills due to summer slide.”
“We’re working to ensure not only that they don’t fall backward, but they make two to three months gains over the summer,” she said.
The program is open to children in kindergarten through eighth grade who are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches. It focuses on those with skills below grade level, although it welcomes strong students as well.
This summer marked the first year as a program partner for Georgia Tech, which hosted 38 rising third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders from Drew Charter School on campus. Last Friday, they celebrated the end of their six-week program.
Test scores showed improvements. “Overall, there have been about a half a grade to three quarters of a grade progression in most students,” said Chris Thompson, associate director of Tech’s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing. “Academically, its been really powerful.”
The Georgia Tech program emphasized science and engineering skills. Students learned to observe and inquire through the scientific process, studying fossils, visiting the campus research beehives, and launching their own model rockets. College lecture halls turned elementary classrooms boasted vibrant, kid-friendly decorations and student projects.
Ingrid Sadie said her 9-year-old daughter is looking forward to going back next summer. Ideally, students will enter the program in kindergarten and return every year until high school. “It never seemed like schoolwork to her, it just seemed like pure fun,” said Sadie.
On their last day, students at Georgia Tech were treated to the two-story water slide in the recreational center on campus. Swimming lessons are an integral part of the Horizons program, not only as a safety measure but to build confidence. Six weeks ago, 90 percent of the students did not know how to swim, said Kinyatta Trice, Horizons site manager at Tech. Now, most can swim from one end of the pool to the other.
Confidence is key to a student’s success throughout his or her education, said Trice. “Some kids who weren’t high achievers have had the space to spread their wings. We’ve shown them they can do the work if they have a little more time.”
Horizons also sponsors sites at Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta Technical College, Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School, and Woodward Academy. The organization hopes to open five to seven more sites in Atlanta in the next three years.
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