Our Position: Summer Exploration a winning Iowa West Foundation-school district collaboration
There’s an old saying that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, and the Council Bluffs Community School District is applying that notion to its summer school programs.
Summer school used to be where students went when they flunked a course. Beginning this year, summer school â€" now referred to as “Summer Exploration†â€" for the district’s students might include dance lessons, art projects or a trip to the zoo. And best of all in these tough economic times when many parents are badly stretched to make ends meet for necessities, it’s all free.
The district will continue to offer the traditional “credit recovery†courses for students who fail a class, but Virginia Bowers and Ann Mausbach have been working on the new program in hopes it will make students want to go to school in the summer. Bowers is grant-funded consultant for the summer learning project, Mausbach the school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction.
“We have offered courses for middle school and credit recovery for high school, but we didn’t serve many elementary school kids,†Mausbach said.
But, as Mausbach was quick to point out, research shows students usually experience a “summer slide†when they’re out of school. Long story short, the downside to summer vacation is that students forget some of the things they learned.
To counter that loss, Mausbach and Bowers have put together programs they hope will attract students in kindergarten through middle school.
“We need to make it different so it doesn’t feel punitive or remedial,†Bowers said, i.e., honey rather than vinegar.
To that end, Summer Exploration 2010 will offer classroom work in the morning, but grade-schoolers be able to pick from more than a dozen afternoon electives that will depend on their grade levels and interests. The program has been set up to focus on learning skills appropriate to each grade level.
This is the first year for the grade school and middle school programs, which will be offered June 7-July 2. It’s free, but the district can accommodate only 400 elementary-school, 150 middle school and 150 high school students. Transportation will be provided from district schools. Breakfast and lunch will be included.
Bowers and Mausbach began working on the new programs in September, but said the idea for the program came up last March. It’s part of an Iowa West Foundation, five-year, $5.2 million grant. Research influenced the district’s approach to the program, and research suggested the approach will work, they said.
We applaud the school district for an innovative program that will, hopefully, create a love of learning in more students and the Iowa West Foundation for making it financially possible.
Summer school used to be where students went when they flunked a course. Beginning this year, summer school â€" now referred to as “Summer Exploration†â€" for the district’s students might include dance lessons, art projects or a trip to the zoo. And best of all in these tough economic times when many parents are badly stretched to make ends meet for necessities, it’s all free.
The district will continue to offer the traditional “credit recovery†courses for students who fail a class, but Virginia Bowers and Ann Mausbach have been working on the new program in hopes it will make students want to go to school in the summer. Bowers is grant-funded consultant for the summer learning project, Mausbach the school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction.
“We have offered courses for middle school and credit recovery for high school, but we didn’t serve many elementary school kids,†Mausbach said.
But, as Mausbach was quick to point out, research shows students usually experience a “summer slide†when they’re out of school. Long story short, the downside to summer vacation is that students forget some of the things they learned.
To counter that loss, Mausbach and Bowers have put together programs they hope will attract students in kindergarten through middle school.
“We need to make it different so it doesn’t feel punitive or remedial,†Bowers said, i.e., honey rather than vinegar.
To that end, Summer Exploration 2010 will offer classroom work in the morning, but grade-schoolers be able to pick from more than a dozen afternoon electives that will depend on their grade levels and interests. The program has been set up to focus on learning skills appropriate to each grade level.
“We go from academics in the mornings to the more-creative courses in the afternoons,†Bowers said.
This is the first year for the grade school and middle school programs, which will be offered June 7-July 2. It’s free, but the district can accommodate only 400 elementary-school, 150 middle school and 150 high school students. Transportation will be provided from district schools. Breakfast and lunch will be included.
Bowers and Mausbach began working on the new programs in September, but said the idea for the program came up last March. It’s part of an Iowa West Foundation, five-year, $5.2 million grant. Research influenced the district’s approach to the program, and research suggested the approach will work, they said.
We applaud the school district for an innovative program that will, hopefully, create a love of learning in more students and the Iowa West Foundation for making it financially possible.
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