Student Success Story: Preventing the Summer Slide

Last year, Allentown students Kayla and Aiden Gilleo started the summer reading below grade level. By the time school started again in August, both students were back on track. What made the difference? Cleveland Elementary School’s summer learning program.

“They advanced. Without the summer camp, I don’t think we would be as successful on the reading level as we are now,” remarked Nicole Gilleo, Kayla and Aiden’s mother.

When the school year ends, students can lose two to three months of skills and knowledge every summer. Over time, this adds up, and it makes them fall behind it school.

“We call it the summer slide,” said Beth Tomlinson, Director, Education, United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley (UWGLV). “It can cause students to fall two to three grade levels behind their peers by the end of 5th grade if they are not engaged in summer learning opportunities. For children to be successful in school and on track to graduate high school, they need to keep learning over the summer months.”

In the United Way’s latest funding plan released in June, United Way made a significant contribution to summer learning initiatives, investing $450,000 into academic and enrichment programs. The Lehigh Valley Summer Learning Coalition, led by United Way, strives to increase both access to and the quality of summer programming for low-income youth across the Lehigh Valley.

UWGLV has a bold goal to increase the number of third graders reading on grade level by 2022, and summer learning opportunities are a key strategy to achieve that goal.

United Way will partner with Allentown, Bethlehem Area and Easton Area school districts to fund academic programming and support enrichment activities with partners including Boys and Girls Club of Easton, Da Vinci Science Center and the Greater Valley YMCA.

“Summer learning can be fun! Programs and camps offer kids the chance to make new friends, hang out with their school classmates, learn new skills, develop new interests and increase their confidence,” said Tomlinson.

While Christopher Rhodes had fun, his reading improved. In 2016, Christopher dropped a grade level in reading between the beginning of June and the end of August. After attending summer programming in 2017, his reading stayed right on track.

 “When you’re there in the classroom seeing the teachers interaction with the students and how much fun they’re having, it’s a pretty good experience,” said Kevin Rhodes, Christopher’s father.

Interested in getting involved in the Lehigh Valley Summer Learning Coalition? Contact Beth Tomlinson at 610.807.5745 or betht@unitedwayglv.org.