Summer reading pushed to keep students from falling behind

A delivery van winds its way from Kanoheda Elementary in Lawrenceville to a modest apartment complex a few blocks away.

Children line up in the hot morning sun awaiting its arrival. They crave a hearty treat. But it’s not ice cream being served from the white van -- it’s paperbacks.

To prevent summer brain drain, metro Atlanta schools are doing everything they can to entice students to read, including putting books in their hands.

“Research tells us a strong reader reads at least one million words a year,” said Sherrie Moss, Fulton County Schools' director of language arts. “The best predictor of summer loss or summer gain is whether a child reads. If you read at least six books you can maintain where you were when you left school in May.”

Parents who don't push their kids to read over the summer could see them fall below grade level. National studies show elementary school students who fail to read during the summers between second and fifth grades likely will struggle in sixth grade.

According to the National Summer Learning Association, much of the achievement gap between low- and high-income students can be attributed to unequal access to summer learning opportunities.

Metro Atlanta public libraries and schools are working together to encourage students to pick up books instead of  video games.

Students can win a laptop, digital camera, iPod and other gifts in prize drawings in the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library System if they meet reading requirements. Young children must read 10 books and log the titles. Teens have to read five and write briefly about each one. Registration forms are available at all 34 branches of the library through Aug. 1.

“The children are having fun, they are learning and they are talking about books,” said Mary Starck, branch group manager.

Metro area schools also post book lists  on their Web sites. Some of the titles are mandatory.

Greater Atlanta Christian School in Norcross requires elementary students to read five books and take tests on them when classes resume. Their parents also must sign forms verifying that the books were read.  High school students must tackle two or more books and complete a project before school starts.

In Cobb County, teens meet for book talks on some campuses, where they see performers highlighting elements from novels. A grant covers the expense. Honors and advanced placement students in Fulton prepare for school assignments by reading challenging authors.

On the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, Georgia saw reading scores dip on average for second-graders in 2010 compared with earlier years. Atlanta schools accounted for eight of the bottom 10 test scores in third-grade reading, seven of the bottom 10 scores in fifth-grade reading and seven of the bottom 10 scores for eighth-grade reading. Reading is tied to promotion for third-, fifth- and eighth-graders.

Georgia was ranked 35th in a national study examining the reading performance of fourth-graders. The report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation stresses the importance of getting children to grade-level reading proficiency by the end of third grade.

“Seventy-one percent of fourth-graders in Georgia are below proficiency,” said Laura Beavers, national  Kids Count coordinator. "What we found is that the summer learning loss was a big issue.”

Summer reading helps students still learning English retain language skills. Nearly 65 percent of students at Lawrenceville's Kanoheda Elementary, a campus of 1,000 with a poverty rate of 90 percent,  live in homes where English is a second language.

Recently, 50 kids zoned for Kanoheda picked through books practically delivered to their doors, this time by a volunteer's car.  The Book Mobile program, in its second year, has provided hundreds of  donated books to residents of Herrington Woods Apartments.