HARRISBURG — The state Department of Education is taking small steps to slow the ‘summer slide.’ David Volkman, Executive Deputy Secretary of Education, says students can fall behind by not having stimulating activities available after school and in the summer.
Volkman says one successful program is in Berks County they help fund the ‘TIPS’ program, which stands for ‘Teachers in Parks,’ “They actually have a program, when students are not in the building, they actually go to parks , near pools, etc. They mix academics, mathatics, English language arts, with activities.”
Teachers say it can take 7 weeks in the beginning of a new school year for students to catch up to where they were at the end of the last school year. Volkman says that effect is magnified among low-income students, who can lose 65 percent of what they learned over the summer. Volkman says education officials are looking forward to research being done by Albright College into the benefits of summer learning programs.
