Summer learning’s promise: a first step to post-Covid healing

After an enervating school year reeling from Covid, many students are looking at the prospect of a mind-numbing summer school with dread. To entice them and their teachers back to the classroom, some school districts are redesigning summer programs, recognizing that unpressured and engaging activities, combining tutoring and physical exercise, may provide a needed transition to reopening in the fall – particularly for students set back most by the pandemic.

For weary district administrators, the timing is tough, but the need is unprecedented, as is the money — billions of new federal and state dollars waiting to be spent.

This week, we look at opportunities and options of expanded summer learning. We speak with the head of a nonprofit that’s been promoting innovative programs for two decades and the program director in a district that has been successful in building community partnerships.

John Fensterwald and Louis Freedberg are the cohosts. The guests are:

Jennifer Peck, president and CEO of  Partnership for Children and Youth,  an organization championing high-quality learning opportunities

Amanda Reedy, administrator of Gilroy Unified’s Power School and after-school programs

For background, read these EdSource stories:

To reopen safely and responsibly, schools need their afterschool partners

After-school programs can help students during pandemic

California schools to get $15.3 billion in federal aid under American Rescue Plan

Find out how much California school districts and charter schools will get in Covid relief : a database

Also of interest:

Make Your Summer Game Plan:  a series of webinars for K-12 leaders and community partners