What is Summer Slide and Why Do We Care?

Credit: Reading Partners

This year is the first year that Act 284, Read to Succeed legislation will recommend that 3^rd graders across the state repeat 3^rd grade if they are not reading proficiently on grade level as measured by spring scores on SC Ready. As part of this legislation, these students will have the opportunity to attend a district sponsored summer reading camp. Based on their scores at the end of the summer camp, recommendations to retain will be made. The camp is not mandatory, but encouraged for these students who are at risk. The state department of education values community partners  and encourages districts to partner with local organizations to provide supplemental learning activities.

Next fall, as schools open across the Lowcounty, students from low-income households will begin the year with acheivement levels lower than where they were at the beginning of summer vacation. This tendency to lose skills over the summer is often referred to as “Summer Slide”. During the summer, 80% of students living in high-poverty areas will lose reading skills over the summer. Students who are not readng proficiently by 4^th grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school. This is a crisis in our state and becomes an economic development problem when students do not graduate with the skills they need to be college or career ready.

This summer, Reading Partners SC will partner with Charleston County School District during their summer reading camp and the City of Charleston Recreation Department and the Mayor’s Office for Youth and Family during summer camp at Arthur W Christopher Community Center to provide additional reading intervention for these students during their summer camps. Reading Partners engages the community to play a supportive role in the lives of children using an evidence based program. “We are excited to partner with the community to help combat summer slide. It’s so important for our students and such a fun way for the community to help support reading for all,” said Kecia Greenho, Executive Director, Reading Partners South Carolina.

Last summer, Reading Partners provided reading intervention, practice and mentorship from community volunteers, AmeriCorps members, and staff. Mayor Tecklenburg’s call to action is designed to inspire others to get involved and make reading fun over the summer and help kids increase and keep from sliding backwards. During the pilot program last year at AWCCC, 82% of students enrolled in Reading Partners increased or maintained their reading skills as measured by the state approved STAR reading assessment. Community partnerships like this can be instrumental by providing students in under-resourced neighborhoods with the tutoring and mentorship they need to become proficient readers by the fourth grade.

A proven, national nonprofit that mobilizes community volunteers to work one-on-one with struggling readers, Reading Partners is determined to serve 800 students in South Carolina in the 2017-18 school year. Currently, there are over 200 students who will participate in the summer programs waiting to be matched with tutors. Now is the time for our community to ensure that our students have the reading skills and confidence they need to be successful in school and in life.

Reading Partners volunteers utilize an easy-to-follow, individualized lesson plan each week in order to meet students at their level and help them make the critical transition from learning to read to reading to learn.

To learn more about volunteering with Reading Partners, please vist www.readingpartners.or/volunteer, email volunteerSC@readingpartners.org or call 843-860-3915. Schedules can be flexible for summer programs.

About Reading Partners

Reading Partners empowers students to succeed in reading and in life by engaging community volunteers to provide one-on-one tutoring. Since its founding, the national nonprofit organization has provided proven, individualized literacy tutoring to nearly 45,000 elementary school students in under-resourced schools across ten states and the District of Columbia. Visit readingpartners.org to learn more about our program impact, or connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Recently, Reading Partners was recognized as a Best Practice Honoree during the 2017 Library of Congress Literacy Awards. The 2017 awards program honored 15 organizations for outstanding work in the field of literacy and implementation of best practices in literacy promotion.

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This is a press release

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