School boards across the country are reporting “high demand” for summer learning programs as parents look for opportunities to help their young children catch up and get excited about learning again after more than two years of COVID-disrupted classes.
In an article posted on July 10, CBC News spoke with a summer learning teacher in New Brunswick, who noted the lower student-to-teacher ratio of summer programs compared with regular September classrooms, and how “experiencing pandemic disruptions and changes during the past few school years have made it difficult to build and maintain momentum for learning … summer programs can be a real opportunity to help address learning gaps.”
CBC also talked with Janice Aurini, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo, whose extensive research into summer setback/student learning loss includes studies conducted for CODE‘s Ontario-based Summer Learning Program.
According to Professor Aurini, “It’s critical that we help children catch up during summer vacation so that they can enter school in September and hit the ground running … and feel good about themselves.” She also warns that “by the tender grade of three and four, if children aren’t able to transition from learning to read to reading to learn … we lose those kids. They’re not able to keep up with their peers and they become increasingly disengaged from school.”
The full CBC News article can be found here.
