Friday, April 27, 2012

Summer Matters | Summer Matters

Summer Matters | Summer Matters:


Summer Matters 2012 Kicks-Off in San Francisco with Superintendent Tom Torlakson and Mayor Ed Lee

SF City Hall event also features Muhammed Chaudhry of Silicon Valley Education Fund, SFUSD Superintendent Carlos Garcia and parent Michelle Jacques-Menegaz

Summer began in California on Tuesday, Apr. 17 at San Francisco City Hall. Although the calendar says it’s still spring, a celebratory event on the Mayor’s Balcony launched Summer Matters 2012—a collaborative effort to expand access to quality summer-learning and enrichment programs for all California children and youth.


Summer Matters is a New Vision for Summer Learning and Enrichment in California

Every child needs access to quality summer-learning opportunities in order to avoid summer learning loss, and to be successful in school and in life. Summer learning loss is cumulative and disproportionately affects low-income students.
Partnership for Children and Youth is collaborating with partners such as Senator Mark DeSaulnier,State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and the National Summer Learning Association to expand access to quality summer-learning programs for low-income children across California. This work is generously supported by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation andKaiser Permanente.
Our vision of quality summer learning includes intentional academic programming, enrichment activities, literacy, physical activity, health and nutrition, and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Summer Learning Loss

Watch this video by Horizons National and find out what happens over time to disadvantaged children who lack access to enriching summer-learning activities. Summer learning loss is cumulative and disproportionately affects low-income students.
Research shows that unequal summer-learning opportunities during elementary-school years are responsible for about two-thirds of the ninth-grade achievement gap between lower- and higher-income youth. As a result, low-income youth are less likely to graduate from high school or enter college (Alexander et al., 2007).