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Education Dive
As summer nears, school districts begin 'scenario planning'
It's unclear whether in-person summer learning will be possible, but a few options are beginning to emerge.
Linda Jacobson
April 14, 2020
Saturday “academies” and extending the current school year are among
the possible ways state and district leaders say they plan to use the
summer months to counter some of the learning loss expected due to
school closures, uneven internet access and delays in implementing
formal online instruction.
“We’re at the beginning of the conversation of what summer might look
like,” California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond said last week
during a press call focusing on parents’ early experiences with remote
learning.
With $16 billion potentially available through the Coronavirus Aid,
Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act for K-12 education, leaders
can begin to discuss whether some of those funds will be directed
toward summer school.
“If districts want to think in innovative ways about how they could be
bringing that money to bear on summer learning. they can use the
dollars for that purpose,” said Mike Magee, CEO of Chiefs for Change, a
network of current and former state and district superintendents.
He said his organization would also press for additional funds for
education in the next stimulus package and that it should be
significantly “bigger than the phase three stimulus” because school
districts are concerned not only about summer learning loss, but also
the economic downturn’s impact on budgets for the 2020-21 school year.
Magee added the Federal Communications Commission is also “sitting on”
$2 billion in E-Rate funds that could be “strategically deployed right
now to great benefit for students.”
'Opportunity for creative collaboration'
Because it’s unclear, however, when districts will be able to open
buildings or when nonprofit organizations that normally provide summer
learning programs will be able to operate, the most a lot of leaders
can do at this point is “scenario planning,” said Aaron Dworkin, CEO of
the National Summer Learning Association.
Members of the association’s New Vision for Summer School Network,
which includes roughly 50 school districts from across the country, as
well as nonprofit and foundation partners, are discussing three
possible directions, Dworkin said.
The first is that summer programs will still be conducted in person,
but would start later. It’s also possible summer learning would be
completely virtual. A third possibility would be a hybrid model with
multiple smaller groups if restrictions on group size are still in
place.
District leaders “are sitting at home in their living rooms trying to
pull this together,” he said, adding he recommends they begin to
collaborate with the range of organizations, such as libraries, parks,
museums and other organizations that typically provide summer learning.
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