Butler County Schools are Fighting Summer Learning Loss
These Butler County students are spending part of their summer breaks learning in the classroom.
Some Butler County students are spending their summer vacations in an unusual place – the classroom. The elementary students are keeping their skills sharp by practicing their reading, math, and science skills in a fun and hands-on way to prevent Summer Learning Loss.
“Whenever children spend seven, eight, nine weeks not interacting with teachers, not picking up a book to read, not working any math problems or spending any time with their academics, there is some regression that takes place,” says Greenville Elementary School Principal Kent McNaughton. “It’s just like with physical activity. If you take two months off, whenever you return to performing that physical activity, you’re not going to perform at the same level as after nine months of training. It’s the same with you’re brain and academics.”
Studies show students can lose up to 2.6 months of education over the summer break if they aren’t exercising their minds every day. Butler County schools are fighting that by engaging students through Summer Achievement Programs, which are programs that help students practice their skills in a fun way.
Parents who don’t want to enroll their kids in the summer programs have other options as well. Teachers advise just practicing certain skills with children for at least an hour every day.
“Getting them telling time, practicing lapse time, having them do multiplication facts, reading,” suggests Greenville Elementary Teacher Bridget Willis. “Reading any and everything, even if it’s a newspaper, magazine, or a book. All of those things can be done just to keep students’ minds engaged.”
Schools usually start signing students up for the programs as the school year is winding down. Butler County began enrolling students in the Summer Achievement Programs at the beginning of May. The Butler County program starts at 7:30 A.M. and ends at 5 P.M. and runs Monday through Thursday.
