United Way Fights the "Summer Slide"

During the summer months, students risk losing 2-3 months of learning math and reading skills if they aren't engaged in learning, this is called the "summer slide." Without books and computers in the home and family resources to afford high quality summer camps, low income youth are at a greater risk of the summer slide than their peers.

Lehigh Valley Summer Learning Coalition (LVSLC) is making a difference!
Since 2014, the LVSLC has worked to help raise community awareness of the harmful impact of the summer slide, improve the quality of summer providers and ultimately increase access to affordable summer learning programs.

"Summer learning allows our students to reinforce and extend foundational reading skills in a more personalized manner, and the reading data shows that the continuity of literacy instruction over 12 months significantly helps BASD students. We are thankful to our community partnering and coordinating with us to keep children learning over the summer." - Assistant Superintendent for Education/Chief Academic Officer for the Bethlehem Area School District, Dr. Jack Silva.

LVSLC efforts to expand access to summer programming are paying off!
From 2014 to 2016, Bethlehem, Allentown and Easton have seen a 6% overall increase in the number of low income youth engaged in summer learning (from 35% to 41%). This is the result of awareness efforts by the LVSLC and donations secured from local corporations, banks, foundations and individuals. 
 
Dramatic increases in the number of elementary-aged students engaged in summer learning opportunities!
Low income students not reading at grade level by the end of 3rd grade are 13 times more likely to drop out of school. Engaging younger students in summer learning is key to achieving reading proficiency in time.

• A 284% increase in Easton (up from 106 to 411)
• A 116% increase in Bethlehem (up from 152 to 329)
• A 12% increase in Allentown (up from 470 to 530)

The right amount of quality summer learning beats the "summer slide"!
Across both school-based and community-based summer programs where students receive the right amount of both academic and enrichment programming (between 100-150 hours), we see great results. On average, 94% of students were able to maintain their spring reading levels with between 10-30% of students actually gaining at least one month in reading levels. Additionally, 8 in 10 summer providers made sure their students read at least 30 minutes per day while in their programs.

"One young boy struggled with both academic and good behavior all school year. We debated about putting him in our summer program because of his bad behavior, but in the end decided to give him a chance. Let me tell you, he was a completely different kid in our summer program! With the small class sizes, extra help, and fun activities, he became a real leader and came every day with a big smile on his face. It was absolutely unbelievable the change our summer program had on this boy." - Tonya Swavely, Principal at Cleveland Elementary School.