Shoring up the summer slide

~ Students can lose months of reading and math skills over the break.

Inside Cape Girardeau's Boys and Girls Club, children as young as 6 spend the summer brushing up on math skills with play money and reading books.

It's part of a summer program organizers say could help reduce what education experts call the "summer slide."

According to the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, students typically lose one to two months of reading and math skills during the summer break. Teachers often spend four to six weeks at the beginning of each school year reviewing material that students forgot, said center director Ron Fairchild.

Students from all income levels lose 2.6 months of grade-level equivalency in math over the summer, research shows. That may be because all students are less likely to practice math outside the classroom, researchers say.

But when it comes to reading, low-income students on average lose more than two months of grade-level equivalency in reading, compared to one month for middle-income students. Fairchild said that's because middle-income families can provide the resources and opportunities to fill in the gap when school's out.

"This is an example of research confirming common sense and what most parents know," he said.

Fairchild compares the situation to an athlete or musician taking time off. "We would expect a professional athlete's or musician's performance to suffer if they took a three-month break from their instrument or their sport," Fairchild said.

Switching to a year-round school schedule is one answer to the summer slide. Cape Girardeau school board member Laura Sparkman suggested earlier this summer that her district should study that option.

But Fairchild said it's not the only option.

"We really need to be creative in how we conceive time for learning," he said.

Nationwide, community groups like Boys and Girls clubs offer summer programs to help exercise students' minds. But more programs are needed, Fairchild said. "What it comes down to is we need more public funding for opportunities like that," he said.

None of the research surprises Natika Rowles, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Cape Girardeau.

"Kids are losing the skills they have learned through the school year," she said.

Rowles said the club tries to combat the problem through a program on personal finance that emphasizes practical math skills and a reading program that offers children a chance to read books and have books read to them.

The Cape Girardeau Public Library operates an outreach site in the club at 232 Broadway, stocking it with library books and offering reading activities.

Rowles said the club incorporates games into the summer program. "It is fun learning," she said. Students, she added, don't realize they are learning basic academic skills.

The summer program serves about 55 children, mostly from low-income families. The students range in age from kindergarteners to high school seniors.

The club, which relies largely on United Way funds, grants and other donations, charges a fee of $15 per child to help cover costs. Rowles said that's far cheaper than the expense of private day care, which can cost $100 or more a week.

Solomon Garcia, 7, and Christina McGee, 6, don't know about the "summer slide." What they do know is that they like playing word and math games. Christina liked the math game with play money "because it had lots and lots of money," she said excitedly.

Christina also pointed out her favorite Dr. Seuss books among the books on a shelf in one of the classrooms. She pulled out one titled "Oh, The Things You Can Think."

The children get to draw, too.

"I like to paint," said Solomon, who worked on a picture of fireworks.

Jeremy Moore, a program facilitator at the Boys and Girls Club, teaches Christina and Solomon and other children ages 6 through 8.

Other facilitators handle different age groups. Nine- and 10-year-olds are in another group. Children ages 11 to 13 are grouped together. Those 14 and older are in a fourth group.

Moore plays word games with his group of children and teaches them how to count change with Monopoly money.

He reads books to the children too, but he makes sure they're listening. "Every two or three pages I'll ask them what happened," he said.

Moore believes the summer program will keep students from losing academic skills. "It's not a day care," he said. "We are not just here to watch the kids."

Moore and Rowles believe children like Solomon and Christina will be more successful in the classroom when school begins again in August. For the children in the Boys and Girls Club program, they say, math and reading won't be a distant memory.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123