Whether you are a parent, a teacher, or a school administrator, there are a variety of community resources and programs available to enroll your child in, promote at your school, or to grow your knowledge base as a professional. From your local public library or city program, to national nonprofits, the following lists some well-regarded community resources.
The Los Angeles Public Library
The Los Angeles Public Library features a Summer Reading Challenge from June 10th through August 10th for children, teens, and adults. Students collect points and a chance to win rewards for reading, completing activities, writing book reviews, and attending library events.
The Los Angeles County Library Summer Reading & Discovery Program
The Los Angeles County Library Summer Reading & Discovery Program is free to the public and people of all ages are encouraged to participate. They have programs for the whole family: babies and toddlers, kids, teens, and adults. Los Angeles County Library locations also host special Summer Reading & Discovery events for the whole family, including performances, STEAM programs, book clubs, and a Summer Learning Day on July 12, a national advocacy day dedicated to keeping kids learning, safe, and healthy every summer.
The National Summer Learning Association
The National Summer Learning Association is a national, non-profit organization focused on the powerful impact of one achievable goal: investing in summer learning to help close the achievement gap. They use the power of research, advocacy, training, and policy to transform America’s neighborhoods and communities, one child at a time. Their online resource center features print-ready PDFs such as reading list, #SummerLearningWeek playbooks, and parent guides.
Springboard Collaborative aims to close the literacy gap by coaching teachers, training family members, and cultivating reading habits so that scholars have the requisite skills to access life opportunities. Their offerings include afterschool programming, an intensive summer program, and a school year blueprint available to parents, teachers, and school administrators to encourage yearlong best practices.
READS for Summer Learning is a research-based program piloting and studying interventions that cultivate increased literacy engagement and comprehension in students during the summer. They partner with school districts and nonprofits to deliver the program in high-need elementary schools. The program is housed at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
RAND Summer Learning Report Series
Funded by The Wallace Foundation, RAND recently released its second edition of the report, Getting to Work on Summer Learning: Recommended Practices for Success. It includes guidance for running summer learning programs for school district leaders and their partners. In more succinct form, their research brief, Summer Counts: Making Summer Programs Part of the Learning Equation, is also available.
Children’s Literacy Initiative
Children’s Literacy Initiative is a 501(c)(3) non-profit working with pre-k through 5th grade teachers to improve early literacy instruction so that children become powerful readers, writers, and thinkers.
Their goal is to close the literacy achievement gap between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers. They do this by coaching teachers, stocking classrooms with curated collections of high-quality children’s literature, and providing workshops and seminars to build teachers’ knowledge of literacy content and pedagogy.
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