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This brief article discusses the importance of Summer Programs to help lessen the learning gap that happens over the summer. It also mentions the challenges of creating and/or keeping these programs but shows how beneficial they can be.

This article had a very interesting view on summer programs. Every year during the annual review for IEP/504 meetings, the team will decide if a student qualifies for our extended school year (ESY) summer program. Students are only recommended if we determine there will be a great regression for a student during the break. Although many students would benefit from this, students in our autism program are mostly placed in ESY. This year, we are looking into having a "family night" where parents can learn about skills/strategies they can work on over the summer in order to help their student from regressing during the summer. While some parents may work with their child over the summer, the reality is those students who really need it, will not work over the summer. I am hoping more counties will create more programs to help all learners during the summer months.

This article mentions how much of student learning is forgotten over the summer because of the gap in the school year. This article also mentions the difference in socio-economic levels and how student from higher incomes are more likely to participate in summer activities that encourage learning. Whereas students from low incomes are often spending the summer at home with limited activities.

This article discusses how teachers can help every student move forward and experience success by anticipating possible gaps in knowledge and building scaffolds into each lesson to address these gaps. The author, Pepper Rollins (2016), describes a variety of tools to provide such support.

Preventing students from dropping out of high school shouldn't begin in high school. Research shows that efforts and attention should begin in the middle grades because those grades can be a prime battleground against dropping out in the future. There program does not lie solely with the at-risk youth and potential dropouts. Schools need to determine and implement school improvement strategies and models reflective of all students to give each student e genuine opportunity to succeed. Meaningful Engaged Learning (MEL) helps students succeed academically. MEL focuses on five areas - Inviting Schools, Learning by Doing, Student Voice and Choice, Higher Order Thinking, and Real World Connections.

Posted by Katie, Malkie and Bonnie. This article addresses the debate between teaching systematic phonics and teaching phonics as part of a whole language approach. It mainly deals with the flaws in the research on this debate and not so much with ultimate conclusions on the matter, however, it is stated that a whole language approach to reading instruction is always beneficial.