Research shows that summers without quality learning opportunities put our nation’s youth at risk for falling behind – year after year – in core subjects like math and reading. The reading skills low-income students lose each summer are cumulative and contribute significantly to the achievement gap between lower- and higher-income kids.
This summer, Better Basics is excited to pilot a new reading program designed to help children retain and improve their reading skills. We have created a book-club program titled 30 A Day. It is designed to encourage children to read thirty minutes each day during the summer. We are working with forty children from the Northeast YMCA and the Western YMCA to test the program, and we hope to expand it next year.
The Roger I. and Ruth B. MacFarlane Foundation provided the funding to research and develop the program over the last year. The Summer Adventures in Learning (SAIL) partnership provided funding through the Daniel Foundation, the Mike and Gillian Goodrich Foundation, and the Untied Way of Central Alabama to implement the pilot this summer.
The program guides students through a book club process while reading high-interest books. Each child participating in the group will have a specific role to play in the learning activities that are designed to increase reading comprehension.
In addition to this new summer reading program, Better Basics is holding Summer Learning Program camps that focus on improving reading and math skills for struggling students.