Brian Smith has seen the benefits of summer learning firsthand.
As a teacher at Oxford Elementary School in Claremont, Smith worked during the summer to help students who needed extra instructional time.
However, the way summer learning is done has changed. For teachers like Smith, summer learning is less about getting students to the next grade and more about nurturing students to make them better so they can move forward.
Over the past few years, COVID-19 recovery funding has created opportunities for more comprehensive summer learning programs focused on student needs. Now, as that funding expires, the approach to summer learning in schools may change.
In an email, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction said summer learning is a strategy schools are using to combat learning loss and make up for instructional time lost due to the pandemic.
“The gap between opportunities is often expressed in months or even years, in terms of how far one student group is behind another,” said Matt Ellinwood, director of the Education and Law Project. “The best way to make up for that is through additional learning time, whether that's after school, tutoring or summer school – that's how you can bridge those gaps.”
While summer learning is not new to North Carolina, there have been changes in how it is offered and perceived.
Public instruction officials said that previously, free summer classes were only offered to students who were at risk of not being able to stay in school or who failed year-end exams. As a result, summer school took on a negative connotation. Now, summer education is about more than just moving on to the next grade.
Smith, a second-grade teacher at Oxford Elementary School, emphasized that summer learning is an environment for students to develop skills rather than forcing them to move on to the next grade.
Smith also explained that many of the students who participate in the summer learning program are at or above grade level, but have the opportunity to hone their skills during the summer. “It's not like we're going to push you up to grade level, like you're already there. But, we want to keep you there. We want to make sure that your skills are really polished,” Smith said.
Smith said the most important aspect of summer learning is having fun. He said when summer programs aren't fun, students lose interest and don't keep up.
“Summer education should be more about Miss Honey than it is about the Trunchbull,” Smith said, referencing the book “Matilda.”,
Catawba County Schools Director of Elementary Education Mitzi Story said Catawba County Schools works hard to redefine summer learning as a fun opportunity for students to overcome their apathy toward summer school.
“It is a misconception that [summer learning] It's not a punishment at all. Hopefully it will be an experience for students who will have fewer slides over the summer if they actively interact with the text and do literacy activities like this,” Story said.
Smith said one way to de-stigmatize summer learning is to build strong parent-teacher relationships throughout the school year.
Smith said it can be hard to let parents know that their child needs extra learning help over the summer, but it’s much easier when parents and teachers work together in the best interest of the student.
“I never want the school building to be a place they're afraid to come to, because they have to come for a very long time. And if they're already afraid of it in kindergarten, first grade or second grade, that's a lifelong fear,” Smith said.
Following the summer of 2021, Elementary Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds, commonly known as ESSER funding, were given to school districts to develop evidence-based summer learning and enrichment programs to combat the damage caused by the pandemic.
But ESSER funding has an end date. Funding for these programs began in 2022 and will run through the summer of 2024.
“At the end of that funding, it will have to be picked up by either the state or the districts, but the state has not really shown any willingness to fill any of the holes that have been created by the expiration of those federal funds,” Ellinwood said.
Without ESSER funding, Catawba County Schools has had to cut services such as transportation because of cost, said Lee Miller, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for Catawba County Schools.
“But now that the ESSER money is no longer available, we’ve had to cut back on what we can provide in terms of transportation, because it’s so expensive,” Miller said. “We’ve had to get really creative this year to be able to provide transportation for the corrections and the second administration.”
Miller said funding for summer learning affects the number of students a district serves.
Many school districts tailor their summer learning programs to students who are most in need of extra support.
“The biggest challenge we have right now is trying to prioritize the resources we’re using,” Miller said.
In order to accommodate and continue to serve students, the district must ask itself what has the greatest impact on students’ education, Miller said.
“You have to sort through all types of tools, from cutting-edge technology to basic consumable textbooks, and determine what's going to be the best thing for your kids,” Miller said.
Sarah Montgomery, senior policy advocate for the Educational Law Project and North Carolina Justice, said the value of education goes far beyond the classroom.
“If our public school system is not meeting the needs of kids, and not contributing to the needs of the community, the solutions that the community needs, then again, that impacts everybody,” Montgomery said.