CELEBRATE Summer Learning Week July 8-13 : Keeping Indiana kids learning, safe & healthy

Summer Learning Can Help Close The Achievement Gap

Celebrate Summer Learning Week

July 8-13!

National #SummerLearningWeek is a great opportunity to showcase the importance of summer learning. Host an event this week or anytime during the summer!

Join the National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) in showing people in your community how summer learning programs keep kids learning, safe, and healthy every summer, ensuring they return to school in the fall ready to succeed.

There are many ways you can celebrate summer, advocate and share your stories of summer inspiration. To get started:

Proclaim Summer Learning Week in your community and show how essential summer learning is in closing opportunity and educational gaps;
Check out the Theme Days and Resources for #SummerLearningWeek ideas and inspiration;
Visit the NSLA Event Tracker to find or post an event/program in your community;
Take action to support increasing access to and funding for high-quality summer and afterschool programs; and
Share your favorite summer learning memories or planned activities with our #SmarterSummers Social Media Challenge.

Kids work hard to learn important skills like math and reading during the school year. But each summer, they can lose up to two months of those hard-earned skills. Summer learning loss puts kids at risk for not graduating high school, and can jeopardize their future.

High-quality enrichment opportunities during the summer can make a difference in stemming learning loss, and ultimately closing the country's achievement gap.

The National Summer Learning Association and the Indiana Afterschool Network are working to elevate the importance of keeping kids learning, healthy and safe every summer, and you can, too.

#KeepKidsLearning

Visit SummerLearning.org to learn how.

Summer Learning Day Resources

The National Summer Learning Association and the Indiana Afterschool Network offer several resources for communities and families that are working to keep kids learning, active and healthy all summer long.

Here are a few highlights:

NSLA Summer Learning Knowledge Center

Visit the Summer Learning Knowledge Center for a wealth of reports and other resources with insights into summer learning for communities, families, local leaders and MORE!

Indiana Afterschool Specialty Standards: Summer Learning
This special Summer Learning addition to the Indiana Afterschool Standards outlines best practices and recommendations specific to high quality summer programming for K-12 youth. The purpose of all of the Indiana Afterschool Standards is to outline the path and steps that lead to high quality youth programs that take place outside the school day. The afterschool standards are based on national research and best practices in the youth development and education fields.

Investing in Successful Summer Programs
A new report from the RAND Corporation (commissioned by The Wallace Foundation) explores what characteristics of summer programs meet ESSA evidence standards, and what characteristics of summer programs meet ESSA evidence standards. Researchers identified 43 summer programs that met the top three tiers of ESSA's evidence standards.

Our vision is that all Indiana children and youth have access to high quality, affordable afterschool and summer learning programs that prepare them for success in school, work, & life.

www.indianaafterschool.org