The following is a press release from the North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation.
Governor Cooper has proclaimed July 12 as Summer Learning Day in North Carolina, highlighting the importance summer plays in children’s school achievement and calling on communities to champion summer learning.
In summer, students from low-income families can lose academic gains made during the previous school year at a higher rate than their peers. While students tend to progress at the same rate during the school year, more than 80 percent of children from economically disadvantaged families lose reading skills over the summer. Summer learning losses accumulate each year to impact third grade reading proficiency. In fact, some research suggests that summer learning loss may account for as much as 80 percent of the income-based achievement gap.
Campaign for Grade-Level Reading communities across North Carolina are focusing on summer learning and gearing up to celebrate National Summer Learning Day on July 12. Highlights include:
- Gaston County – The public library is hosting events at libraries across the county for young children. The library is a partner in the Early Literacy Collaborative of Gaston County.
- Moore County – Partners for Children and Families of Moore County is hosting Play Daze. Family activities include a mud kitchen, fort building and Storybook yoga. This Smart Start local partnership is leading the Growing Moore Readers.
- Wayne County – READ Wayne will promote its Reading Book Box project. Book boxes have been placed in high traffic customer businesses and restaurants to encourage children and parents to take a book and read while waiting.
- Durham County – Scholastic will host a Pop Up Summer Reading Festival (July 16), partnering with Book Harvest as part of its Summer Reading Road Trip. Book Harvest is part of the Durham’s Campaign for Grade-Level Reading.
The North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation is supporting summer program providers in focusing on summer learning with a new toolkit. It includes communication tools to help program staff understand the importance of summer learning, so that they can communicate effectively with parents; information and resources to relay to parents each week in the summer, and a summer learning badge for staff.
Summer learning is a pillar of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. The Campaign is mobilizing communities to ensure that more children from low-income families succeed in school and graduate prepared for college, a career and active citizenship. It is a collaborative effort by foundations, nonprofit partners, business leaders, and government agencies. Since 2015, the North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation has led the national Campaign for Grade-Level Reading in North Carolina.
The Governor’s proclamation can be found here:
https://buildthefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Summer-Learning-Day-Proclamation.pdf
The NCECF Summer Learning Toolkit can be found here:
https://buildthefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/READ-ME-FIRST.pdf
About the North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation
NCECF is the state’s only organization focused exclusively on children from birth through age eight—the most rapid period of development in human life. It promotes public understanding, spearheads collaboration and advances policy to achieve its vision that each North Carolina child has a strong foundation for lifelong health, education and well-being supported by a premiere birth-to-age-eight system. Learn more at http://www.buildthefoundation.org
Like us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/buildthefoundation.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel at: www.youtube.com/buildthefoundation.
Follow us on Twitter at @ncecf and @tracyzimmerman.
Follow us on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/north-carolina-early-childhood-foundation.
About the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
Launched in 2010, the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is a collaborative effort of more than 360 communities, representing 43 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada. The Campaign works to ensure that many more children from low-income families succeed in school and graduate prepared for college, a career and active citizenship. To learn more, visit gradelevelreading.net and follow the movement on Twitter @readingby3rd.
