Coming up on learning Curve.

Summer is here bringing sunshine and freedom for kids.

But for many parents, it also brings a common concern.

This summer, Slide in learning will explore its impact.

Effective ways to fight it and what clues parents should watch.

That's next.

On learning.

Welcome to Learning Curve.

This month we're diving into the summer slide.

That frustrating phenomenon where kids can lose the educational momentum they built all school year.

We'll discuss its impact, effective ways to fight it, and what clues parents should watch for it to know it's happening.

Before I introduce our experts and we have a discussion.

Let's take a look at one way families are already keeping their children engaged.

There's nothing quite like summer for kids.

A time for lots of sun, lots of playtime, and a much needed break from the school year routine.

But for many parents, the warm weather brings a concern of the summer slide.

The phenomenon where students can lose significant academic ground during the long break from formalized learning across our community.

Many residents are looking for ways to keep young minds stimulated, turning summer vacation into an opportunity for continued growth, not a pause button on learning.

The recent West Florida Public Library event, Learning Color Mixing, was a partnership with the Pensacola museum of Art.

For nearly an hour, students and many adults got their hands dirty and kept their brains active.

It's it's catching up to what it was pre-COVID.

We're we're now back into full swing.

I expect, an exceptional summer.

As you see, our very first summer reading session, we're having to do a second session because the room was overfilled.

And while big turnouts are a terrific result for the library, for parents, the top priority of such events may focus more on stimulating the brains of their little ones.

What do I. Oh, definitely.

I mean, my son is like, he's more of a gamer, you know?

And like, he will slide into that iPad.

Too much iPad activity.

So I try to like, organize, you know, different things.

And we had to have the calendars here that tell you all the dates and we I let him pick out the ones for steam that, you know, all these are under like steam, which is like the science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics.

And so we've heard what events like learning color mixing mean to the library and parents.

But what about the kids?

You heard Kristen talking about her son Winston, who's about to be a sixth grader.

Here he is describing some of the things he's looking forward to thinking about this summer.

I also do some like science, science, and also some ode to what you said, some science type stuff.

Yeah, like what?

That sounds cool.

Like I'm like, am I know previous school, always willing to, but like the moon and all that stuff and also some other science stuff like animals and and plants.

So Winston is going to have his hands full this summer and that's by design.

What we try I try to like at least have a few structured days a week and then the rest, you know, he gets to kind of more, you know, do what he wants to do.

But at least I know that every other day he's doing something structured and we're going, you know, so but with this like at least two of the days a week, we're coming to the library for different activities.

And the museum, he's got an art class that he takes at the museum.

As we've heard here, there may be power in numbers.

The more kids or even adults that show up to events like these, the better the chance more will want to come.

And that's something the team at Northwest Florida Public Libraries knows well.

Well, we try to focus on family program that we have something that the parent doesn't just want to drop the kid off and leave, that it's something that they're interested in doing as well.

As you saw in that classroom today, it's about a third or more adults.

The library will be hosting free events all summer and beyond.

For more information on any of those, you can visit my w fpl.com.

And now let me introduce my two guest doctor.

Karen Barber is the superintendent of schools in Santa Rosa County, and Doctor Jennifer Stark is an associate professor from the Teaching Leadership and Research Department at the University of West Florida.

Ladies, welcome and thank you both for coming to shared that very much.

So we just saw this nice story.

Some kids are already out getting it done at the library.

That was really, really nice to see.

I will be honest with you.

The concept of the summer slide wasn't something that was necessarily on my radar when we started researching summer topics.

It kept coming up, kept coming up.

So let me just start with that.

Superintendent, I want to start with you.

When you think of this summer slide, how do you define it?

What stands out to you is sort of its key characteristics.

Well, it's a real concern for sure.

And there are some things we can do to mitigate the summer slide for sure.

Elementary, middle high school.

That summer slide can affect those grade levels very differently.

But at the elementary level, we're looking at a young children who are just learning to read.

So over the summer, if parents practice with them, then we're going to mitigate some of that slide.

But if that doesn't happen, if there's not reading in the home, then you're going to see, some loss of decoding skills.

On the math side, you're probably going to see fact fluency.

That's a really big deal.

How to add subtract, multiply, divide.

Of course, especially those, multiplication tables are really, really important that that students don't lose that skill over the summer.

So those are the two areas when it comes to to elementary school, middle and high.

You don't see those kinds of regressions, but they can still be there in some form.

Doctor stark, when you think about this, just the summer slide, how big of a of a legitimate issue is it?

Where?

Because, I mean, like, I remember I couldn't wait for summer break.

It was the best day of the year.

Every single year.

And as much as I hate to admit it, the last thing I wanted to do was actually think about learning.

And I had no appreciation as a kid for the fact that I might be doubling my skills a little bit.

Like how real is the summer slide?

It's, something like 65 to 75% of kids have some type of summer slide and reading or math like Doctor Barbara described.

So it's a very sizable problem.

There are some kids, a very small percentage that actually show gains over the summer, but the majority of students actually show some type of either stagnation in their skills or decline in the skills they previously developed, especially students in the younger grades where they're developing some of that procedural fluency with, mathematics and learning how to decode with reading.

So the harder the gains are, the faster they seem to go.

So it's such a tremendous thing to learn to read for the first time.

And so if you don't continue on that trajectory of developing those skills, it's very hard to get them back when they come back to school.

So the largest drops are actually for students who made really large gains during the year.

Those those actually slide very quickly in.

Is that because they have more to lose, if you will?

It's like they learn so much that they might drop off 70%, but they still had so much in the tank is that it's a lot of developmental piece there.

So those younger students especially, it's very much tied to their development and fluency requires practice.

So if you're not practicing during this summer, you're going to have larger gains or losses.

So Doctor Barber, as a superintendent of schools, I mean, obviously you are you're talking to faculty at the elementary, the middle and high school level all the time.

And as we were talking about before we start recording, that doesn't end in May.

I know that those conversations continue when the new school year starts, and you're talking to faculty members over that first, say, four weeks or so, and they talk about summer slide, how much do they talk about it?

Like how much they acknowledge, like this is a real thing.

Is it is it something that's very, very common for teachers to talk about?

Or is it something that everyone kind of knows but maybe doesn't talk about it that much, or even address it?

I don't know that we use the term summer slide, but we have progress monitoring that happens.

So in the state of Florida, there is a progress monitoring, one that happens at the beginning of the school year.

Number two, that happens about December, January.

And then of course progress monitoring three, which was the state assessments that just happened.

So we really want to meet children where they are.

So that first progress monitoring assessment that data is just critical.

We want our students to do their very best on it.

Now we don't out of the gate day one.

We want them to take those assessments.

We really want them to get back into the routines, back into being comfortable at school, feeling safe, building their confidence and then getting a true picture of where they are when it comes to reading and math.

And then taking that data and saying, okay, now that's where we're going to teach children what what is, give or take.

There may not be an absolute answer here, but the window of time where you feel like, okay, they're they're going to be comfortable.

Now we've given them long enough.

It's time to do the assessment.

Is it two weeks?

Is it a month and a half?

Like when do you feel like they've settled in?

2 to 3 weeks.

Usually.

That's a good time.

We don't want to let any more time go by because we need to get straight into doing the work, and, and intervening where we need to and then accelerating for all of our students.

Doctor stark, I'll start with you, but certainly, Doctor Barbara, you may chime in as well.

You started to talk about some of the specific issues as it relates to elementary.

When you think about elementary versus middle schoolers versus high schoolers, obviously we're all in very different places at those ages.

Or are certain ages affected more or less by the summer slide, or is it had nothing really to do with age?

And it's more about what what each of them do.

Over the summer, they found a it's very apparent for younger students, of course, but then there's also between fifth and sixth grade, there seems to be something, and it might be because of the rigor of the curriculum.

When they go to middle school, there's a jump there.

So that those are some time periods that the research has noticed that they're particularly problematic for summer stuff.

Slide.

And it might just be a mismatch of the curriculum between elementary middle school.

It might be the add to the students.

Sometimes kids are not taking things as seriously when they go in the middle school at first as they did.

Perhaps when they were in a self-contained fifth grade classroom all day and they had a teacher they didn't want to let down.

So there's a lot of things are going on that is not well understood about that second piece, social adjustments.

So, yes, when we have children that are at the elementary level and they're in a self-contained class, they probably form their community or their bonds with each other a little more quickly.

When you're at a middle school or a high school, you're changing classes.

So there's there's that.

You're interacting with a whole lot more students, but for shorter periods of time you have more teachers.

So it takes a while for us to for that student to feel like they belong and that they're safe, and that they have something of value to add at the school.

And that's really important to that.

We make sure that right at the beginning of that year, students feel safe, they feel valued, but they also feel like their contributions are valuable.

You know, in our first episode of Learning Curve last month, we talked specifically about students who are making the jump from fifth to sixth grade and those making the jump from eight to ninth, because that's not just a grade, it's also a new school.

It's now all of a sudden changing classes and all of the social adjustments that come with that.

So it's interesting to hear you both mentioned that it sounds like while academic rigor, as you pointed out, certainly would play a role.

It's more than that.

When you start talking about these kids getting older, it's more than just, did I do anything over the summer?

It's also what are the ten new things I'm dealing with that I wasn't dealing with before?

And how how aware are teachers of that?

Like do they as as say, high schoolers or middle school teachers thinking about that part of it too?

Like, this isn't just what did this student do over the summer?

It's also I have to remember that, yep, their lives have changed pretty dramatically.

How much does that get taken into account?

I think teachers do a pretty good job with that.

I was an old school teacher, so I can speak to that.

And I remember, you know, trying to really help students bridge the gap and helping them understand how things are done differently in a middle school compared to an elementary school.

And then in the same adjustment period, the first couple weeks, it's a lot about teaching the new procedures.

It's about keeping up with your your materials.

Because going from class a class, you know, stuff gets lost.

Needs to be more responsible for keeping with homework and assignments for multiple classes.

So teachers are pretty good these days about teaching all those expectations and giving students strategies, and then letting the parents know if they're starting to see some issues already early in the year.

I think everybody's pretty aware of that, but it still is a big job.

Like you said, going from fifth or sixth grade, going from a ninth grade.

So there is going to be an adjustment period, and some kids handle it better and others in the state of Florida, some of the required training for teachers and for any employee in a school setting is the youth Mental Health First Aid, training.

And so as we all go through that, you are looking for those warning signs, those red flags, but also learning skills in which to, you know, to help cultivate that trust and those relationships, we know how important to students resiliency is, and that means having that trusted adults at the school.

So I feel like our teachers, I would agree with you, do a really great job of being aware, and understanding that beyond academics, we're looking at that whole student, that whole child.

Well, I'm so glad you pointed that out, because I'm positive parents or guardians, that's the sort of thing that I think a lot of us, might assume happens, but but maybe don't know for sure.

So it's great to hear that.

Yeah, this isn't just about school.

We go through a lot of training, we know how to spot things, cultivating that trusting relationship so they know they can come to us when they're struggling.

That stuff is so crucial.

But not necessarily a given.

So it's it's great to hear that.

So I think we've spent the last 8 or 9 minutes kind of confirming it's an issue.

Yes.

So for parents or guardians who are watching, who are thinking, yeah, that all sounds great, but I can't get my kid to to get out of bed until 1:00 pm or all they want to do is jump on the Xbox or sit by the pool, or go to the beach, or look at their phones.

Of course, they're not interested in learning right now.

How do how does a parent or guardian sort of change the conversation in a way that acknowledges, yep, this is your summer break.

Go get them, have a good time.

But we can't just totally turn it off.

What are some things parents or guardians can do well when it comes to reading?

Okay and reading comprehension.

And that's really vital to every student, no matter what their grade level is.

One of the biggest barriers to reading and comprehending is a limited vocabulary.

So language is really important.

So it doesn't even have to be that we're we're getting out the flashcards or we're getting out a book.

We're having conversations.

We're having shared experiences.

We're going to the Navarre Marine science Station, we're going to the wildlife refuge, we're going to the beach.

But we're having conversations and talking and spending time with each other and making eye contact and getting rid of the screen.

That's that's so great.

It's one of those.

That's one of those, like, they don't know they're learning no end.

Well, then they're learning right now.

But you're engaging them.

And some of it I you know, we have a lot of learning tools that are on the screens for kids.

But some of the newer research is showing it's not as effective as people had hoped.

So young children learn to love reading that emotional connection between their parent, and child and what's going on.

The story that really helps them understand what's going on.

So the parent explaining things to them, or pointing out pictures that they found interesting or commenting about, you know, what do you think is going to happen next?

That kind of engagement is more effective than just watching some person, Miss Rachel, somebody read something on YouTube to them.

That's actually what gets their brain going.

The passive piece is is not very effective.

So I want parents to understand that.

Is that, you know, you could watch something together.

Also, maybe you don't have a lot of books in your your house.

You can watch something and pause it and talk about things as they go.

So you can make use of whatever tools you have.

But like Doctor Barber said, that the powerful piece is the conversation and the relationship between the parent and child, and having that shared experience.

And I think it's hard for parents because they have a lot of demands on their time.

You know, some parents are working more than one job.

They have mobile children home for the summer and so they're trying to meet the needs of not just one child at a time, but maybe a few children.

And so it can be exhausting for parents, and they have to give themselves a little grace, but kind of build something in that each day, whether it's, you know, 20 or 30 minutes that you take a little bit of time, and do something, it's not really on a screen that you have a conversation, you take a walk.

If you if you can get to the beach, or you can get to somewhere to a state park or a national park or something like that, do those things with your child because they'll remember them.

And it also bridges to something else you could read about or learn about when you get home.

So you can go to library and check out books and things like that.

So.

So those are.

Yeah, I mean, that's all great for sure.

Those are great ideas.

So let's do talk a little bit more about technology though, because we know, I mean all three of us now.

Anyone watching knows how much screens do mean to I people love to say, oh, kids love their screens.

We all do.

I mean, every time I look around, we're all on our screens all the time.

It's the way it works.

Let's not kid ourselves.

So but certainly kids are right there in that population.

So how can aside from just watching things, are there apps that come to mind?

Is there a technology that comes to mind that can be leveraged in a way that, again, they're on their screens and again, we don't want them on the screens for 12 hours, obviously, but at least you can then acknowledge, like, yep, I know you're going to be here.

Use this.

What are some of those things that might exist?

Well, there's a couple of great tools that we have in our school district.

And one of these is available throughout the state of Florida is called Con mango.

This is vetted.

It is free for students in the state of Florida.

And it's been developed by the Khan Academy.

So, a reliable, safe app for our students to be able to continue to learn and grow.

And then in Santa Rosa County, we also have something called progress learning.

And, we give some of our assessments on this platform, Progress learning.

But students can also, especially with fact fluency in mathematics.

It is a great learning tool that that they can use over the summer.

So those are both safe.

They're they're both vetted.

And those are just two of the resources that are available.

Great tech start here.

A lot of the PBS kids, apps that are available, they're free.

Thank you for saying that right here.

And they are free.

And they have to do with science and social studies.

So there's a lot of concepts that are not necessarily math and reading things, but there are other things that, you know, kids be it be able to build their background knowledge, they need to understand some of the things they read later on.

So getting them a little broader, base of knowledge is often helpful.

So let's talk about this for a moment.

We're adults, we don't get summer breaks.

Kids do.

And as I, as I said, off the top, those are some of the best days in my life.

Was that last day of school, and it's.

I'll see you in three months.

So I think it's fair to acknowledge that.

Enjoy it while you get it.

Kids like this will go away at some point in the not too distant future.

They need the break to right.

It's sort of a balancing act, isn't it, in terms of we don't want them to just totally slip away and go into the slide, but it is kind of nice that they get to to chill some too.

Is that fair?

Oh for sure.

And isn't it great that we live here in Northwest Florida where a couple of things to do, right?

There are a couple of things to do.

Yeah.

And that are free, you know, so for any family, whether they are economically disadvantaged or whether they are a family with means beautiful things that we can do that that are no cost.

I think the important part, we have to be realistic.

And so we don't want parents thinking, oh, you got to have a schedule from 630 in the morning until 9:00 at night.

And, and, you know, you're stressed and exhausted.

It should be a time for for fun.

And but always some routine, you know, even from that first day of summer break, that routine is still critically important.

And a balance.

I think it's reasonable.

You know, if you have older kids are a little bit more able to manage, but with younger kids, you can do that for them.

Like, you know, by the time we get ready for whatever time 10:00 or 11:00, you've done these few things, teens, you can leave a list home.

You know, I need you to get a couple things done, whether it's a chore, whether it's read a book, whether it's go work on your SAT prep that you need to do over the summer, like leave it, you know, 2 or 3 things for them to do if they're having to manage themselves at home.

It's a lot easier if you're there to do that for them, but it is good that they're not going to be in bed till 1:00 every single day, because it just makes it so rough when they have to go back to school and get on a regular sleep schedule.

And for their bodies, like, it's not that healthy to have such a disrupted sleep anyway.

Doctor Stark, how about does any of the research point out anything as it relates to summer jobs?

I know that the work that that's specifically now we're talking pretty much about juniors and seniors, but obviously that's that's staying active.

That's that's keeping the mind going.

Is is that something that helps a lot or.

I haven't seen any research about that.

I mean, I also have a 17 year old.

So before she got a job, she had a volunteer in state of Florida.

We have, you know, the Bright Futures program and it is flexible.

Now you can use volunteer hours or work hours towards that.

But I thought it was a good habit, at least for her to start learning how to be accountable to somebody even when she wasn't paid.

So you have to be somewhere at a certain time.

You have to dress a certain way.

Which was kind of a shock for honestly.

And then you have to take feedback from your supervisor.

So I think those are all good skills develop, for young people to, to kind of get accustomed that because eventually we all will probably have a boss at some point.

And we have to have a regular routine ourselves and be able to take feedback and things like that.

But workforce education is so important in the in the nation, in the state of Florida, for sure that this is a priority.

And there's some research out there related to internships for students.

And if a student is able to intern in a job that they may be interested in having as a career, once it increases their likelihood of being employed in a high wage, in-demand job by about 40% to internships, that's up to 90%.

Yes.

So those experience is, even, you know, just working at the Starbucks, you're still learning a lot of soft skills that employees need.

And and we're preparing the workforce on the note of preparing the workforce as it relates to what schools can do.

We all know about, like, summer reading programs.

What are some other things, if any, that say happen at any level in Santa Rosa County?

That that will help prepare the kids or keep them thinking through the summer.

Is there anything aside from like summer reading programs?

Certainly.

So our libraries are open, our elementary libraries are open.

So parents just need to contact the school to find out what those hours are.

But, workforce education really starts with kindergarten all the way through our post-secondary technical college.

So our workforce education program has, at the middle school level, engineering and artificial intelligence camps this summer.

And we still have some openings.

Good to hear.

Yes.

So so there are opportunities there.

A lot of our middle school and high school students will also take, virtual classes over the summer.

And those are great.

Some of the there are there's required curriculum.

Now, that state statute is now requiring that all students have driver's ed before they exit high school.

So those driver's ed courses can be taken during the summertime.

And those are available right now.

Virtually.

Sounds funny.

Driver's ed virtually.

But there is a component of learning the basics.

So there are opportunities for students to continue to earn credits during the summer.

Like my virtual driver's ed was Mario Kart.

So it sounds like it's come a long way.

So we have just a moment left.

I'll ask each of you to wrap things up.

And I'll start with you.

Don't start anything for any parents or guardians watching anything come to mind is sort of a specific.

Over the next few weeks, this would be really strong.

Do this.

Go to the library, maybe something.

Our libraries have wonderful resources.

Besides, of course books and things like that, but they often offer, free programing for kids of all ages, whether it's science or engineering, just some topic that your child is interested in.

Take them down and participate and see what they think of because they can get a lot out of those just kind of informal experiences.

And we, you know, off the top of this episode, we had that nice story about an event that was at the library in downtown Pensacola.

And yeah, I mean, if you check out their website, it is just an unending list of things that happened there free.

And I know that's true across Santa Rosa County and Okaloosa County as well.

Doctor Barbara, anything that comes to mind for you in terms of like, one good thing to tell any parents or guardians have meals together?

Put the phones away, talk to each other, play games, get out some board games or card games, or just put the technology aside for a little while and spend time together as a family.

I love, I love how much you're stressing the idea of just communication, the sort of thing that we all do without even thinking about it, and how valuable that is and how far that goes.

Impressive.

Thank you both so much, Doctor Karen Barber and Doctor Jennifer Stark.

I appreciate your time, both of you.

Superintendent from Santa Rosa County Schools and a professor from the University of West Florida.

Well, that will do it for this month's learning curve.

Thank you so much for taking the time to watch for our executive producer, Jill Hubbs.

I'm Christian Garman.

We'll see you next month.