>> Hello and welcome to Education Matters, where we take a closer look at various topics in the world of education and break down how it matters to you.

I'm your host, Kelsey Starks.

This time we're taking a closer look at the summer slide.

And no, that is not a slide into a swimming pool on a hot summer day.

It's a term educators use to describe the learning loss that happens for many students over the summer months when they are out of school.

Research shows students can lose 1 to 3 months of learning over the summer, with the biggest impacts for low income families.

Studies also show investing in summer learning programs can have high returns, preparing children, both academically and socially, for returning to school.

But there are problems with access and funding.

So in the next hour, we're going to explain the depth of the problem, the programs available to help close that summer slide gap, and what parents can do to make the most of these summer months.

Our panel of experts are here to explore this topic with us in depth.

Danielle Ward is an education consultant and Reed to achieve grant administrator at the Kentucky Department of Education and head of the KDE Summer Boost Program.

Jay Crocker is a teaching veteran of 22 years and currently teaches English at Ballard High School in Jefferson County.

He's also a faculty member of the Kentucky Governor's Scholar Program and a 2009 Milken educator.

Kathleen Kelly is the director of the Kentucky Out of School Alliance, one of 50 statewide afterschool networks working to expand access and enhance the quality of after school and summer learning opportunities.

And Doctor Virginia Mensch is a board certified pediatrician at Norton Children's.

She is also a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

So thank you all so much for being here to talk about this.

First, let's get a good handle on this problem.

What exactly is the summer slide?

I'll start with you, Doctor Mensch.

Just mentally.

Developmentally.

What are we talking about here?

>> So with summer slide, this is a term we've kind of given a phenomenon that we see with children when they kind of regress from developmental and academic milestones that they've met previously in that school year.

We know that the biggest areas affected can be reading and writing.

So English, as well as mathematics, and sometimes losing up to 20% or almost 30% in those skills areas.

We also can sometimes see that even younger children can have developmental milestones, whether it's socially impaired social regression of skills that they previously have learned as well, too.

>> And Kathleen, I know your organization has a lot of statistics on this, a lot of data and research.

How widespread is it and is it something that affects everyone or certain groups more than others?

>> Yeah, absolutely.

Well, it definitely impacts everyone.

We actually just released a report with the After School Alliance Kentucky after 3 p.m.

really highlights that two out of three children whose families want them to have access to summer program don't have access to summer program.

We also know in our rural communities there's less access.

And when we think of access, it's also transportation issues.

And so there is that huge impact.

And there's that impact of the Stem and the literacy piece.

And there's all these enrichment programs that summer programs offer that look a little different than what the school day provides.

But it's still that matching that gap that's there.

So it's something that impacts everyone.

And we're seeing it more in our low income, but also middle income families.

That's been there's a greater number of middle income families that aren't being able to afford summer programing than in the past years.

>> Yeah.

And we're going to get into the cost and access.

That is absolutely a barrier.

I'm curious, Mr.

Crocker, your perspective as a teacher, you're the one there with these kids when they're leaving for the summer break and when they come back in the fall?

>> Absolutely.

It's it's one of those things that you notice, you know, from the day one, when they come in and they start work asking them to engage in some specific writing or reading skills, it's almost as if they're rusty or have forgotten.

And it teaching high school myself, it is one of those things that it doesn't just affect our younger children.

It affects our our adolescents as well, even those that are moving on to post-secondary options.

>> And we, we do focus on those younger students as well.

But you're right, it affects high school students and even post-secondary.

So what what are these kids doing if they're not involved in a summer program?

What do we know that's happening at home?

>> Well I'll speak.

I know that that 2 to 6 is a really impactful time during the year, but also during the summer time, we see kids who are getting involved in activities we might not want them to get involved in.

There's a great organization called Investing Kids Fight Crime.

That is from our law enforcement perspective, because kids do get more involved in activities that put them in the juvenile justice system, and that's something we want to avoid.

I often talk about to how, you know, some of us might have been watching, you know, Jerry Springer.

We were at home for the summer, which wasn't great, but it wasn't the same as having access to the whole World Wide Web.

And we're seeing a lot of research come out about the negative impacts that screen time and scrolling has on our youth.

So that's a part of what they're doing if they don't have access to these enrichment programs.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

And Danielle, I want to go to you from the KDE perspective.

You know, in an era after Covid when we're already talking about these Covid era learning losses, how how is this problem now exacerbated by that?

Or where are we?

>> Well, it certainly has been exacerbated.

We're seeing great gains in literacy and numeracy here in the state of Kentucky, and we're really excited about that.

So we want to ensure that our students still engage in vibrant learning at home during the summer break.

One recommendation that we have is to visit our summer support pages at the KDE website.

Those pages can provide wonderful activities for students and ways for families to engage with their students to continue learning during the summer break.

>> There are so many resources available out there, and we're going to make sure that we've linked you up to to all of those on our website.

That's ket.org slash Education Matters.

But first, I want to talk about this being more of a national issue.

This isn't just something that's happening there.

And to learn more about that perspective, KET is Emily Prince sat down with Doctor Lauren Gilbert, the CEO of the National Bell Excel program.

>> Joining us now is Doctor Lauren Gilbert, the CEO of Bell Excel.

Thank you so much for joining us.

>> Thank you for having me here.

I'm excited to have this conversation.

>> Yeah, we're happy to have you.

So if you don't care, just open us up.

Tell us a little bit about Bell Excel and what you all do.

>> Well, we have been in existence for over 35 years, and our main focus has been on young people and what happens during the summer and how we can expand their learning so that they don't have an experience that what's really called a forgetting curve.

So what happens during the summer?

It just like in anything, if you don't keep practicing something, you lose it.

And so what we've done is a lot of research into what mitigates that so that we can have young people who have show up at the start of school year with their best version of themselves.

>> Yeah, excellent.

And that's exactly what this program is all about, is all about summer learning loss.

And, you know, you gave a great intro to it there.

But from your opinion, why do you think that so many students experience this summer slide?

Some people call it.

>> Yeah, because we all do.

Right.

You know, my nephew is in the National Guard.

And if you think of the National Guard, they have that great, you know, motto where they have a weekend, a month, and then a couple of weeks during the summer.

And the reason they do that is because they know that if you do not practice a skill, you're going to lose it.

And that is the same thing for all of us in every scenario.

Same thing for young people over the summer.

It is a research type of phenomenon that we all experience no matter what we're doing.

If you don't practice something, you'll lose it.

But it only takes a little bit to interrupt that forgetting curve.

So if we can disrupt that in the summer by giving them some great experiences, whether that's some quick reading or a really powerful program, doing something just like the National Guard does, to interrupt that curve so that you can flatten it out and they can come back to the start of the school year well prepared to start fresh in, you know, August, September.

>> Yeah.

And that's exactly what we want to see.

So for this summer learning loss, why is it so problematic for both students, but also teachers as well.

>> Absolutely.

So if you think about it to the young, you know, the end of the school year, you are at your pinnacle.

You have been learning all year.

We test our young people, then we know exactly where they're at.

And then at the start of the school year, what do we also all know?

Curriculum.

Even creators know that there is so much learning loss that you don't actually start introducing new skills to about October.

Think of all those weeks that we're losing on a regular basis during the school year, and teachers are under such pressure to get results now.

Right?

And we're already dealing with just this cycle of repeating at the beginning, because we've accepted that loss is just going to happen.

But we can do something about that.

And it doesn't take much.

And it puts a lot of pressure on these young people, who are also asked to perform at a level that we have not seen.

And so how do we keep pushing ourselves to we know the solution.

Let's do something about it.

Let's put in some mitigating factors so that we're not losing that additional time on top of what we're already losing for the summer.

>> And in your opinion, have we seen an increase in summer learning loss as the years have gone on?

And if so, why is that?

>> It's complex if it's necessarily gotten worse.

But what does happen is that it compounds on each other.

So when you're starting out and you're in kindergarten, kindergartners actually lose the least, right?

Because they don't have as much to lose as they haven't learned as much.

But what does happen is as years go on and on, you start seeing that loss increase year after year after year.

So by the time the children are, you know, middle school, high school, the loss is even more profound.

And especially the middle school and start of high school years where they're not quite that really heavy analytic stage, they're still learning new things, you know, and new concepts, not applying it complete to like something complex like chemistry.

You really see that compounded.

And that's when you see gaps get even wider.

And so it becomes even more important for those grades to really have something that they're doing with those summer months that are challenging and activating their brains in ways that they do all school year.

>> And now, maybe for the most important part, what can we do to mitigate this?

When we talk about all different categories of folks, so from the students and teachers, but also parents who might be watching, what can they do to help bridge the gap of that summer learning loss?

>> Well, first of all, the best thing to do is try to find a summer program.

But that can be really hard.

There are some amazing ones out there, and higher income families have always known this.

This is why they have long put their children into summer programs.

But there are amazing programs out there.

If you find them, like the YMCA of Central Kentucky is just doing an amazing job.

We've been partnering with them for years and they have been getting off the charts results quietly disrupting the cycle that I don't think even folks know.

But if you can't find that program, and I get that as a mom, I know it can be really difficult, you know, is the things that we already know actively reading with your child.

But it's not just reading with them, it is actually trying to ask them really good comprehension questions, really good math questions.

When you're at a restaurant, let's talk through, you know, what was the Bill little things like that just keeps that brain going, keeps activating those pieces that have been alive during the school year.

Keep doing that.

And then for teachers, you know, helping families with some of those, like if we all get those summer reading lists right, attaching it with some good comprehension questions is essential.

You know, I'm even an educator by trade.

And sometimes when I'm reading, I'm like, oh, what's the right question?

It was so awesome when teachers actually say, here's some three simple questions you can ask when you're reading this text, right?

And then there's amazing online programs that you can also find to help families with, with this so that they can do all that they can during the summer to keep their families activated.

And finally, for the policy makers, this is a huge win.

I don't care what party you are, 90% of families in every party agrees we should be spending more on summer learning for young people.

They think it's a worthwhile investment and relative to so many other things, it's a it's a low cost.

You know, out of the billions of dollars we spent on education, only 1% one is spent on out-of-school time learning.

If we up that just a little, the impact and growth we could see in young people could be pretty profound.

And it's just a it's a win.

It's a win for young people.

And it's a win for policy makers.

And it's a win for families.

>> Doctor Gilbert, thank you so much for sharing all this with us.

These are great tips and thanks for everyone who's watching students, parents, teachers everyone.

Thank you so much for sharing with us.

>> Thank you so much and families.

Enjoy your summer with your young people and find great things for them to do.

And thank you for paying attention to this issue.

I really appreciate it.

>> Well, Doctor Gilbert makes some excellent points there.

One of those particularly the point about summer reading and Mr.

Crocker, I know this is something very important to you.

>> Yeah.

It's something that I'm very passionate about as the department chair at Ballard.

I speak about it with my 15 other faculty members in the department, and we are all in different pages, shall we say, with it.

But with what Doctor Gilbert was talking about, just even affecting that, that curve a little bit, squashing it a little bit.

I think it's important.

So at Ballard, since I've been there for 20 years, we do an assigned summer reading each year and we do provide guided reading questions for all of for all the levels so that the parents can do it.

We also on our fliers, we have links to the audiobook when it's available so that they can do that for free.

We have links to free PDFs when you know, legal and available, we, you know, we have all of those things to try to remove as many barriers as possible.

And I encourage other schools and other educators to consider this.

It takes about an hour of coordination.

Yes.

I feel like you need to do something meaningful with it at the beginning of the school year as well, and it's a nice way to assess whether there has been any of that learning loss or anything else as well with those with those ideas.

>> Yeah.

And another thing she mentioned there too, is that as the teachers, sometimes you're not even getting to the material until October.

>> That is correct.

There are many times where you have gone through the entire first part of the semester, six weeks or so, without being able to touch new content because you are so busy trying to cover the ground that was lost over the summer.

>> Yeah, just trying to review.

And that is very precious.

Time lost.

>> It is knowing that State testing, AP testing, IB, all of these things that we that we talk about that are so important when you're losing, you know, 6 to 8 weeks, that's that's a large chunk of time.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

Well, another thing she mentioned too is that it's a bipartisan issue.

90% of families want these types of programs.

And so why are these programs facing such pushback when it comes to funding?

>> I don't know if I can answer the why they're facing pushback, but I can say that there are other models.

I think there's ways to be creative about this, right?

There are other models in other states, Georgia, California, Vermont.

They have state funding to for their programing.

So we do see some federal funding in Kentucky.

We would love to see some more state funding as well as local funding, because there are other opportunities.

I think there's enrichment opportunities that I personally live in Louisville, and I know the library provides great opportunities for kids throughout the summer.

I love our library system here and all the opportunities there, but when we're talking about working parents, we need that full day of care.

You'll see a lot of summer camps that one are cost prohibitive, but they're also only half day.

So that leaves parents in a bind for finding childcare and transportation.

So the YMCA is a great example of a full day of care that has enrichment programs, but it's also allowing folks to go into the workforce and stay there.

And that's something we find in our report, too, around parents lack of stress when they're at work, when they know their kids are in a safe space and they know I'm going to be able to go and pick them up when I'm off work, not having to find that coordination.

So I think there there's a will and there's a lot of creativity.

It is a bipartisan support issue.

It's a workforce issue too.

I think we just we got to get there and really advocate for it across.

I think it's a community based thing.

We can't put this all on our school system.

It's across the community.

>> Yeah, that's a good point too.

Another issue with funding is some of the Covid era funding is now lapsing.

So what does that mean for these programs?

>> Well, we have to find other resources.

And so one of the things that the Kentucky Department of Education has done is they have collaborated with the Department of Community Nutrition, and what we have done is we have created the Summer boost program, and it's funding.

It's a it's a competitive grant application process, and it's funding for districts who serve summer food at their sites, typically at their school sites, to receive free books and free resources to help parents engage with their students at home.

And so we were able this year to award 35 sites.

They received over a thousand books, pre-K through young adult that they can distribute at their summer feeding sites.

And so it has been a wonderful opportunity to encourage students to continue reading and to visit those KDE resources on the summer support webpage, like math games and virtual Read Aloud series where people from Kentucky are virtually reading their favorite children's books.

So it's a great opportunity.

>> Yeah, there are a lot of resources out there, but as we mentioned too, sometimes it's hard for parents to navigate where to find everything or, you know, they're trying to piece together just the child care aspect.

A lot of times like, you know, where to send their kids and how to pay for it too.

But a thing that you mentioned too is that parent engagement.

And that's something that I've heard a couple, I want to ask Doctor Mensch how important that is just developmentally with these kids.

Just something as simple as parents reading to asking questions of asking to help figure out the tip on the bill at the restaurant.

There's little things like that that can be done also, correct?

>> Yes.

And we will tend to see that pay or kids with more parental involvement will have less likely to have that summer slide kind of happen.

And, and it can be something as simple as, you know, your day to day tasks.

We want you to incorporate your kid with you.

You know, a little bit of that is age dependent.

But if you're making a grocery list for the store and they're working on reading and writing, have them help you with that.

Summertime is where from a developmental standpoint, we want to see them.

What they've learned in the classroom applied to real life.

And so there are simple everyday ways you can do that, whether it's going to parks in studying science and nature there, but having that parental involvement and guidance.

And as a child gets older and they show more interest, using their interests as kind of something to jumpstart you into whatever activity they might want to do for the summer.

>> And I would imagine some parents would say, well, I don't know exactly what my kids are doing in school.

You know, as a teacher.

Mr.

Crocker, what do you say to parents about how they engage?

>> I'm always happy to say ask questions.

I know that our first inclination quite often is to reach out to the school.

I know working the public schools, there are very few people working there in the summer.

So an email to a teacher.

While yes, we are not working in the summer, most of us know that we are checking our email and working in the summer.

So I would I would reach out.

I'm always happy, especially if we are working towards something like this, about about removing that loss.

I'm happy to reach out.

I've answered two emails this morning.

Yeah, yeah, just happy to do that for, for parents and families.

You know, I talked to my students about asking questions and we practice asking questions even in high school at the beginning of class, because I want them to feel comfortable asking questions.

I feel as if sometimes parents need to remember they're allowed to ask questions too.

They don't have to know everything.

I have an area of expertise.

They have others areas of expertise.

It's okay to ask questions.

>> Yeah, that's a really good point.

And I know Kathleen, going back to the after school alliance, the statistics there, they show that so many of these parents want summer programs, but still millions don't have access to them.

There are programs that are free that are resources that are available.

There's things parents can do, but how do we reach those people who just aren't able to afford it or find them where they live?

>> Right.

Well, and I think that's a big part of our challenge, I would say is Kentuckians is to step up and to advocate for more of this funding and support.

There are wonderful programs that exist.

21st century programs oftentimes will run summer programs as well as after school programing.

But there's the reality of that.

That's not always all summer, right?

And that's because of funding.

And so really, there's the opportunity, you know, the YMCA is a great place to look.

There's also Kentucky Out-of-School Time Alliance.

We have our own website where you can find resources there.

But it is really just we're trying to get more programing and getting more funding for that programing across across the state.

But I would also say in our local communities too, and that's where the libraries play in.

But there's the reality of how often they can provide those.

Boys and Girls Club is also another really great partner and ally where those those programs are going to be housed in those community center spaces as well.

But we need more of them.

>> Yeah, yeah.

JCPS just recently cut their summer program, the Summer Success League, that was also formerly known as the Backpack League.

The district says budget cuts, what are you going to do?

And our our other districts doing the same.

>> You know I'm not I'm not certain.

Yeah.

I do know that the food service program does a wonderful job in providing food for for kids throughout the summer.

However, it would really be local decisions.

>> And that they've JCPS at least has left it up to the schools.

>> Yes, yes it is.

It is largely up to the schools.

And that's where I ask community members, as you said earlier, we are all Kentuckians when it comes to this, this idea, and I know that working with the Governor's Scholars program, I've had the privilege of working in smaller towns across the state.

And quite often I've seen a lot of local businesses run book challenges.

And if you read ten books and you verify this with them, you get a free ice cream.

And yeah, you know, just incentivizing it at the local level is important.

Just, you know, ten books that's, you know, 1 or 2 a week, you know, it's very, very easy to do.

And it's something that you just bring your books back.

And the children would trade the books.

And it was wildly popular for an ice cream, right?

>> Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, I'm a product of the book at Pizza Hut program.

Yes.

>> Bring it back.

Bring that back.

Right.

>> But you're right.

It is this coordination between the community, businesses, schools also.

How does that look right now in JCPS for the schools when they put that on the schools to develop their own summer programs?

>> I know that's why we we do the summer reading at Ballard High School.

And I know there are other schools that do it as well, but not as not as many as I would prefer.

As far as summer programing goes, most of it is summer school or being able to take some classes so that you can work different electives in.

There's not a lot, at least at the high school level, that I'm.

That I'm aware of, because that is my area that I that I work in.

There's not a lot of, you know, kind of just the combating, combating this, this loss and shall we say, learning and fun together at the same time, which is what I can see happening at a lot of these places.

>> Yeah, yeah.

Oh go ahead.

Yeah, I.

>> Was just going to add to that because that's something we see in the research too, is that parents want they want something different than summer school, right?

They want the fun programing.

But as was brought up earlier, that pressure that's on teachers to, to, you know, with the test scores and summer can provide this great opportunity for more unique ways for kids to learn different Stem and learn how to build a robot where maybe you're not going to have the time to do that in the school day, right?

Because of the standards you're trying to meet.

And so there's, there's so much opportunity there for more creative and creating more engaged and diverse workforce for Kentucky.

And that's something we focus on talking a lot about wanting to keep our kids here and make sure they feel engaged.

And I think summer learning, especially in the high school, is a great opportunity for that.

>> Right.

>> And for and for superintendents and local district leaders who are interested in planning summer projects for their students.

The KDE offers a lot of resources on their summer support page that can help them to plan those things.

>> Yeah.

And you mentioned also the Summer boost program.

So we're going to get a closer look at that to see how that and something called the YMCA Power Scholars Academy are working and what we could potentially learn from them.

>> This started years ago.

I was one of the commissioner at the time, was interested in how we could boost reading during the summer.

And it kind of was happened out of that, and a collaboration with the Office of Teaching and Learning and their interest in ensuring students keep their reading and math skills stimulated and growing during the summer, we know that kids need more than just good nutrition in the summer, the summer slide, and it it is affected by nutrition, but they need things to keep their minds going.

>> I was talking with my food service director, and we knew that that Grant option was available to help our students recoup some of the learning loss that they have during the summer months.

We do not have a lot of activities for students to do during the summertime.

We have the the Rocky Evans I know they do a camp at next door at the library, our family resource and our youth service center are also doing camps this summer.

So we wanted to sort of combine the Summer boost program with.

We're we're also doing the meal bundles this year.

We've never done that.

To be able to just offer some resources to our students and families, along with their food bundles that they're going to be getting.

>> Power Scholars Academy is an intentional summer learning loss prevention program that is geared towards students and current K through eighth grade.

It is really focused on reading and math with incorporation of enrichment activities.

So we want to make sure that they're learning, but having fun at the same time.

>> Go, go, go.

>> The first half of the day is primarily academics, but we do infuse some fun, some Stem activities, some engagement activities within that first half.

And then the second half of the day is enrichment opportunities.

And so they get to have fun.

Some of our scholars last year had a chance to build rockets and to shoot those rockets off.

They also got to test water quality in a in a stream that was nearby.

And so we try to get creative about the kind of opportunities that our scholars are experiencing.

The program also comes with some intentional opportunities for community time, where we ask community members to come in and talk to our scholars about whether it's their career or their passion or their hobby, but we want to expose them not just to the curriculum and the academics, but also to the community and building those relationships.

>> It's been, you know, very noticeable throughout the years that I've been in education, that there is that summer learning loss.

And even as a teacher, that's something that the, that we always noticed based on student observations when they came back based on our assessments, when we did diagnostic or summative or screeners, you know, coming in from the fall assessments that there was always a, a loss compared to where they left off in the spring.

>> On average, schools usually anticipate learning loss when kids come back from the summer, it's estimated that that's about two months worth of regression.

Our locally Power Scholars Academy is demonstrating two months gain in students within a 4 to 6 week summer program.

So when you think about not just combating the learning loss, but having an opportunity for kids to participate in a summer program that is demonstrating gains on average, it's beneficial for everyone.

The students succeed, the schools get kids who are on grade level and ready to learn, and the community benefits from students who are ready to learn and who can continue their elementary or middle school education at an appropriate level.

>> The number and the age range of kids that come out and stay to do activities.

I can remember being, I think I was in Bullitt County a few years ago, and it was it was a gazebo in an apartment complex.

There was no pool there.

And it was not it was a it was a hot day.

It was.

We were in shade, but it was still quite warm.

And we had kids that came out for the meals and the enrichment from kindergarten through about, I think the oldest one was maybe 17.

And they stayed.

They stayed.

I think they liked the social aspect.

They loved the the math skills that the high schoolers were doing.

I couldn't have solved, but they were having a great time with that and kind of competing and enjoying that time together.

And I was just impressed because kids didn't come out and get a meal and run back into the a C, they stayed outside to have that, that time doing something that stimulated their minds but was fun and spend time with other kids in their in their little neighborhood.

So, and I've seen that played out over and over.

It's just a really good, I think it's a really good partnership that we have with Summer boost.

>> Just having those resources and like I said, hands on materials that in the home that can strengthen, you know, that parental involvement with our students, that they have those resources that we can give those that the students can, you know, like I said, have the hands on with the books.

And I know there's resources that they're giving with the math as well, but just that the students can have time and it can strengthen that, you know, that that student interaction with their parents during the summer, especially at our younger age.

>> When you can change that trajectory, when you can reverse that regression and say, even if they didn't progress at at an average of two months gain, they didn't lose either.

That is monumental for schools, for teachers, and for the students success.

>> Wow, some great points there.

And it sounds like almost we need to just flip the mindset of thinking of summer break as a break and more of an opportunity, right?

For some of these, some of these kids.

So, Danielle, I want you to explain how the funding works for free programs like these.

>> Yeah.

So Summer boost is funded through the Reed to achieve grant that I manage through the Office of Teaching and Learning.

And this year we were able to do 35 sites in the past that was only 30.

And so we're excited that we're able to offer more funding.

But this is a terrific opportunity for these applicants who are now awardees to get these free books, these free promotional materials, and give these out to the students and not only the students, but the parents as well.

There's a QR code on the promotional materials, and parents and families can just snap that QR code, and it will take them to those summer support pages where they can download information about literacy and numeracy and how to engage with their student through the summer break.

And so more funding opportunities like that are needed.

They certainly are.

>> Yeah.

So I mean, any business leader, community member who sees something like this, they can kind of start thinking about how maybe they could contribute, right and be a part of this, making this up.

Another part that she mentioned was the social aspect, which we haven't even touched on.

Doctor mentioned, I want you to start there because, you know, these kids, like we said, we want them to be off of screens and being kids this summer too.

>> 100%.

We could have a whole hour to talk about the social implications of technology.

I really think that we saw that kind of exacerbated during the Covid pandemic, to which the effects we are still continuing to learn about, and not all screen time.

I always tell parents and all screen time is created equal.

There are some good content that kids can learn from, but the mindless scrolling that we see kids do is what we want them to avoid.

Yeah.

And then you look at it from the part of socialization where they're around their peers when they're in school, they're having real life relationships and community.

We want them to continue that during the summertime with whether it's with their neighbors or different volunteer groups, because we know that that's a protective factor against mental health, such as anxiety and depression.

So we want them to have that strong core sense of belonging to a community.

>> Are there some specific models of programs that you can measure those outcomes?

>> I think there's more that's coming to light around that.

There's a wonderful organization in Spokane.

It's fun in real life, and it supports the taking away of screen time in school and taking away cell phones because we're seeing that.

But we also know we got to fill that in with something, right, that we have to create these positive social experiences.

And so they're doing a lot of great research around the impact they're having by giving kids more opportunities after school and summer for all different kinds of programs.

But it's really about that social engagement.

And we see that in Kentucky, too, with our parents and families like this.

That's one of the top five priorities for them is that relationship building they want to see and the lack of screen time.

So I think there's more that's coming out as we're seeing more of the negative research around that.

Do I say Doomscrolling.

>> Right.

>> That Doomscrolling.

Right.

And I think teenagers, it's 7 to 9 hours now on screen time.

I was just reading that today.

And so, you know, having an alternative to that.

But I still think that we are getting more data and research around what summer programing can provide for that as well as after school programing.

>> Yeah.

And what do you think other communities can learn from programs like Summer boost or, or Power Scholars?

>> Well, I think they can definitely learn to become more engaged.

Find those public institutions like your public library, that are offering these summer programs and get involved.

I know in the Summer boost program, we encourage Board of Education members, business leaders, people from the Chamber of Commerce to come and sit with these students during their meals and read to them, interact with them, engage with them while they're playing math games.

We need more involvement from the community as well.

>> Yeah, and we touched on this a little bit earlier, but what what kind of role do you all think community organizations should play as opposed to school, putting all of that on the school to come up with this summer programing?

I mean, in addition to what you all are normally doing.

>> I think there's a real opportunity for the private public partnership.

Yeah, there's great organizations in Louisville that are nonprofits who have small fees and are supported by other sponsorships from local businesses, from other parents who can provide more for their child to go to that programing.

But I think that there's a lot of opportunities for those programmings to work with the school district, and we know that part of the issue is that there's not a coordinated effort to learn where those after school programs and summer programs are.

And I think that that's where that real opportunity for building that relationship with the school system.

So folks know what the other opportunities are out.

>> There, right?

>> I think we can take advantage as well of a lot of our colleges and universities.

I know when when I was studying for my master's degree, I worked down at the University of Louisville on a summer program.

It was called the Summer Portfolio Institute, where we worked on the blending of math, science, and reading and writing skills all together in a week long workshop where students from grades four through eight would engage with all three of those subjects.

One thing I remember is they were they were asked to calculate trajectory for for a water balloon slingshot.

And then they got to write about their experience.

And they, they learned about the math and the physics at fourth through eighth grade.

And they wrote about it and they sent it home to the parents in a newsletter each day.

And I believe that there are a lot of us out there that are willing to engage with the community in ways like that, like I did all those years ago.

And, you know, I think we just kind of have untapped ideas and potential, not just with our public private sector, but, you know, within our universities, colleges, churches, any, any kind of religious institutions that are willing to help.

>> Yeah.

>> That's a, that's a really good point.

And those are the types of things, like you said, and building rockets or building the robot.

That's the stuff that kids are learning so much from.

But you don't have time to, to do that stuff during the school year, right?

Yes.

>> Right, right.

Right.

Yes.

>> Yeah.

So, so it seems like a win win, but are there some states from your experience that are doing it right, making measurable gains that we could learn from?

>> I think there are a lot of states that have that allocated funding for summer programing, and that's growing and increasing.

And I think that's one of the ways we can do it.

Right.

I think everything always has to be Kentucky specific to Wright.

We have different communities.

We.

And so I think part of the states who are doing it right, that we can learn from is about that community involvement and community engagement in the process.

And just, you know, different parts of the state are going to have different challenges, such as access to transportation.

Right.

And so I think there are a lot of opportunities to learn from other states.

But I think the biggest thing we can learn is that investment from the state, funding and blending that and braiding that with other forms too.

>> Yeah.

And, and Danielle, you mentioned too, that new education scorecard report that recently came out that shows Kentucky is making some major gains.

Kentucky fifth nationally in reading growth, eighth nationally in math growth between 2022 and 2025.

And a lot of that I know because of the science of reading approach and some of those changes that have happened.

But what what do these types of gains tell us about investing in education?

>> Oh, it's the foremost investment.

It is.

It's our future.

If we don't invest in education, then we don't have much of a future.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> And now that we've seen some of those gains, potentially finding out that something like summer programs would be worthwhile investment.

>> Yes, yes.

>> And I'd like to also add the investing in our summer program workers to that workforce is a huge part of this.

And I will say there are different states I've gotten the opportunity to talk to where they have different credentialing.

And when those work, that workforce engages in that credentialing, they have an agreement where they get an increase in pay, right?

And so that we can keep these really valuable workers who do amazing work with youth and building a robot.

I can't build.

>> A robot, right?

Like that's amazing work, right?

>> And we want to keep folks invested in that.

And we know that consistent adult is a protective factor.

And so to be able to go back to that summer camp next year and see that person who taught you how to do that robot and you're excited for the next experiment you're going to do, I think is huge.

And so part of the conversation, I think, is also investing in the folks who do this valuable work.

>> Yeah, and that's a good point from Katie's perspective.

I mean, it's hard to get teachers.

>> We're in a teacher shortage, right?

>> Right.

So what's what's the solution?

>> That's a great question.

>> I may I step in?

I believe that it's changing the narrative.

As you said earlier, we we struggle with the perception that, you know, that education and reading are kind of like boring or meant for other other times, not the summer.

Right.

But if we would, if we can change the narrative in our understanding of that, you know, bipartisan across the nation, across the state, the Commonwealth here is I think we we do really well at working on that in our gains are noticeable.

But I know that I was reading online yesterday at literacy dot Inc that 25% of adults will not read a single book this year like that is astounding.

80% of American families did not buy a book last year.

>> Yeah.

>> And now we talked about access.

We've talked about other ideas.

But, you know, reading and writing are the natural outcomes of learning, right?

Especially writing.

I believe your ability to write that is your natural outcome.

We have to change the narrative and our understanding as a society, as a commonwealth, as to what we want, because that investment is what will help us.

We will see the most gains for all of our citizens.

And I think that's what's what's really important and how to change the narrative.

I've been working on it in the schools for 22 years.

I'm doing my little part, but the rest of us, we all have to come together to do it.

And I think panels like this, where we bring people from all walks of life, they help to establish that.

>> Yeah, it's a group effort.

>> So say I was talking to a program called Say Yes in Franklin County.

And they, they do amazing programing where they give kids the choice and opportunity to choose what program, after school program they want to do in their community.

But they also host parent cafes and they bring the parents in.

And I think to that point, this is a community wide issue.

Just like we can't focus just on the schools, we can't focus just on the children.

We have to focus on the community at whole.

And I think that's a great example of a programing that's thinking about the broader piece of how do we support this once it goes home to and in the community?

And so that's, I think, a great way of pulling us all into the conversation.

>> Yeah, yeah.

Great point.

Well, as we mentioned, two academics are not the only thing students need to be focused on over the summer.

It should also be about developing all of those social and emotional skills that we talked about.

And sometimes just getting outside, right?

So one program that is integrating both of those is the neighborhood house in Louisville's Portland neighborhood.

And Christie Dutton takes us there.

>> Summer break is usually a time when kids hit pause on school.

But here at neighborhood House, the learning doesn't stop.

It just looks a little different.

>> I call it the spinach and the smoothie approach.

We're trying to show them a really good time this summer, but there's a whole lot of good stuff around social emotional learning and future planning that's packed in there.

>> Executive director Jenny Jean Davidson says while the fun may be loud at the neighborhood house, the students are quietly sharpening the same skills they'll need when they head back to the class next fall.

>> Hi, y'all.

Welcome.

>> What we're doing is providing a enriching environment every day where kids can come and be safe, but where they are also learning how learning skills like emotional regulation, naming their emotions, exercising leadership with their peers, conflict resolution.

>> But no lectures or homework here.

>> It's better than sitting at a desk.

It's like we get to play around in the gym outside, so we get to play around with different friends.

We do like full matches, basketball, football.

>> Jalen green has been coming to neighborhood House for years.

He's high school bound in the fall, but first he's looking forward to another summer here.

>> It's fun.

It's like more active.

You get to learn more and be with nature.

>> More, and it's more fun to learn about nature when you're in it.

>> We get to go fishing, we get to play outside, we get to we can eat on the balcony and stuff like that.

>> And they come back muddy, sweaty, exhausted.

But they've been having an actual like actual field education and conservation biology just by virtue of the fact that they have been out there talking about the natural world and getting to experience it.

>> Experiencing the world around and their place in it.

>> What would it look like to have a big dream for your future, and what does it take to put that in place?

>> Programs like the ones here at neighborhood House, they're more than just about education.

They're about possibility taking the students from where they are now to where they're capable of going.

For KET, I'm Christy Dutton.

>> So there's a great example of a community organization stepping up to provide this type of programing over the summer.

It does cost money.

They offer scholarships for students who can't afford it.

But doctor, I want you to talk a little bit more about some of those other skills that they are learning, that we talked about emotional regulation.

I mean, huge right?

>> Right.

You know, kids are constantly learning.

They don't their brains don't get summer break, right?

They are developing whether it's summer or they're in school and they are constantly trying to make new connections and learning new things, whether it's social skills, emotional regulation, having experiences that kind of expose them to different things, allow them to work and to kind of strengthen their brain muscles.

It's always a way like to talk about with my patients, with your, your emotions, and kind of make those connections and set them more firm in their and who they are.

>> Yeah.

>> And routine is a big part of summer also.

Yes.

Right.

>> And we almost see in every part, I think of a child's Health sometimes summer break can be a disruption to that routine in terms of sleep is kind of a thing they can kind of regress on, and it's all over the place.

Their developmental skills, we kind of see all these changes.

Sometimes their food, what they're eating.

Summer can be so different for them.

And a lot of children, most children thrive on routine and having kind of that regulation that they can count on what's going to happen during the day.

And so as much as you can, having a routine set in place, especially as you're gearing up to go back to school, is something that can help making that transition a little bit easier.

>> Yeah.

>> Even just having to get up at a certain time and get out of the house and go somewhere and talk to other people, right?

Makes a big difference.

So I'm curious what you guys would say is if you could design sort of the perfect summer program, what do you think it would look like?

>> A lot of reading?

>> Yes, yes.

>> A lot of reading.

Yes.

And a lot.

>> Of return on investment.

>> Yes, it really is.

But and a lot of activity getting, you know, your your body engaged as well as your mind.

>> Right?

Yeah.

Kind of the all of the above.

Right.

Do you think the answer here is, is it more funding?

Is it better coordination.

I'm assuming a little bit of both.

Right.

>> I think so.

>> I think it's a little bit of both.

Absolutely.

And I think to the point we've been bringing up a lot, is that community wide engagement and the conversation across multiple sectors.

>> Yes.

>> And for parents who are watching to who, you know, we've talked about the it's a child care issue.

You know, they need someplace their kids can just go while they can go to work.

There's a transportation issue as well, getting them there and picking them up in a half day program or whatever.

So what are what do you think are some practical things that parents can do that that don't cost money?

>> I think engaging with your child at home, learning doesn't stop in the summer, as we've stated, and learning can come in a variety of ways.

You didn't have to create a lesson plan and have a high quality instructional resource to teach your child at home.

And so vibrant learning experiences can be made with parents and children or caregivers and the children in the home.

>> Yeah.

And as a teacher, Mr.

Crocker, what do you want to see parents doing with their kids over the summer?

>> I think more, more than anything, not just asking them to read, but having a conversation with them about it.

I know that in our in our summer reader flying flier, summer reading flier that we send home with all of our students on it, it talks about in six minutes, your heart rate slows when you start reading.

It allows you to kind of cool down.

It prepares you for bed.

I like to think about my childhood when my parents read to me, and I was very lucky that I did have parents that that did do that and please do that with your children.

But, but also, I think a great thing to do to reinforce those writing skills after we read is let's talk about how reading increases our, our empathy.

Let's talk about how not just that, what great.

We read the story.

Let's have a conversation about, okay, why did that child in this story make this decision?

Or why is Charlotte so beloved in Charlotte's Web or any other story that many of us have read before?

You know, even though we know what happens and having those conversations, that's part of that social emotional learning and we're talking about it does not have to be written down in stone.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> Doctor Mensch, I want to know too, what's happening in, in brains when that's when your heart rate slows.

When you read a book.

>> Yeah.

You can kind of think of it almost as the opposite of what happens in your fight or flight response, right?

Where you think of fight or flight and your heart is racing.

And it's kind of the opposite of that.

You're relaxing, you are kind of focusing and you're, your brain is making all kinds of connections in a positive way.

And I think of times, you know, where you can look back at stories and we can learn lessons about life and kids can, you know, maybe in ten, 15 years, they have a similar thing that they've learned from a book and now they have something to relate to it.

Right?

And that is all kind of that emotional maturing and kind of being able to guide their feelings.

>> Yeah.

>> That's, that's really interesting and something so simple.

>> Right, right.

It is very.

>> Simple and it's, and it's accessible and it's, and it's there.

What do you think?

If if we do nothing, if nothing happens, we, we don't invest in summer programs.

What's what, what's that look like?

What's the consequence?

>> I think for a classroom teacher, it makes those first few weeks of school so much more difficult.

And for classroom teachers, you know, they're planning they're preparing all this intellectual preparation to bring their very best to our students.

And then when their students can't work on that grade level, it's it's a daunting task to remediate those skills and accelerate their learning within those first few weeks.

So I think it's very difficult from a teacher's perspective.

>> Yeah.

What do you think, Kathleen?

>> Yeah, I think there's the potential for more harm to children.

That's what you know.

We know crime increases.

We know that they have access to things that we don't ever want them to be making that choice around.

And so from that communal public health space, that's one of the things that really breaks my heart when I think about kids not having access to summer programing.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> And I feel the same way about the classroom.

I worry about the compounded loss.

We know, as we said earlier, there's a teacher shortage and there are plenty of schools around here that they do not have a teacher in all of their classrooms.

So if your child has gone through the summer and they've already lost that 2 or 3 months worth of of learning, and then they come into a room that might have, sure, a certified sub, or they might be sitting there with a, with a Chromebook.

We've talked about the idea of what what the devices are doing.

We know that you're looking at compounded loss for your child.

And that's nothing that I would think any parent and no educator for sure would want to see.

And that's that's what I worry about is the long term effect of that, of that loss, which does lead to a lot of other problems.

>> Yeah.

How do you think communities can what can they do better to connect families to the resources that are out there?

>> Well, I'd like to to remind everybody to check KDE summer support web page, because we have a plethora of terrific engagement activities for you, digital math games, virtual read aloud series.

We have reading trackers and goal setting sheets for elementary and secondary students.

So parents, please take a look at that and see how you can engage in learning with your child this summer.

>> Yeah, there's many resources, as we mentioned, to those will all be available for you on ket.org slash Education Matters.

And but to close, I want to ask each of you all your best advice to parents over the summer months, or a fun thing that kids can do that's actually going to help their brain over the summer.

You want to start?

>> I'll start.

>> Let's see.

>> Parents read with your child.

We suggest reading 20 minutes a day.

Children, as it is often quoted, are made readers on the laps of their children, of their parents.

And so it's important that you read with your student.

So that's my advice.

>> Kathleen.

>> I think my advice for parents is to really seek out their libraries and their museums, because there's so many opportunities for that enrichment, and that will often connect you to other local organizations.

And so those can be a really great host of spaces to find those other connections where your child might light up at like, oh, I really want to go to that history museum.

Right?

And they might have a free program in the summer.

So I think that those are great doors to walk through for parents.

>> Yeah.

Good point.

>> I think mine is to parents as well.

And it is, as I said earlier, to engage with the text.

But I also encourage, as I said, writing is the natural outcome of learning.

I like the idea of starting a family summer journal.

So at the end of the night, after they've read together, why not write in a journal together?

And you can get yourself a composition notebook for $0.99 at any supermarket or anywhere else, and just spend a few minutes after you've read.

Or even if, like you know what?

We're not reading a story tonight.

We're going to talk about our days and we're going to journal about what we did today that is practicing all of those fluency skills that allows for the, for the child to build some confidence in expressing themselves.

It creates empathy if they talk about their interactions, all of those things, just a short journaling moment at the end of the day could be just as useful in many ways.

>> Yeah.

And a lot of times too, that cures behavioral issues, right?

I mean, doctor probably knows this, but as a mom, I know I've used that before, but it just kind of calms the brain a little bit before bed.

And yeah, I agree doctor.

>> I think my biggest piece of advice would be put down the screens and get outside.

Do play with your community.

Get to know your neighbors.

Think far too often kids know who all the top influencers are on social media, and they don't know the name of the kids who lives in the houses next door to them.

Great.

So get involved in your community.

Enjoy time outside, turn off the tablets and the iPhones.

>> Yeah, go play touch grass as they say these days.

Right?

Well, thank you all so much for sharing your expertise and your perspectives on the topic.

I really appreciate your time here and thank you for joining us for this edition of Education Matters focused on preventing the summer slide.

I do hope you've learned something new this evening.

Maybe started a conversation.

So to help you navigate some of the topics we discussed, as we mentioned, we've linked this program as well as all of those resources up on our website online.

You can check it out@ket.org.

JW Marriott.

Education Matters.

You can also view and share this program from there.

I'm your host, Kelsey Starks.

On behalf of all of us here at KET.

Have a great night.