DenverPublic School students taking part in the award-winning Summer Scholars program will be featured on
Education News Parents Can Use, a television series from the U.S. Department of Education about ways to ensure children's educational success. The program will air "Summer Programs: Keeping Students Reading and Learning" on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 on local channels 8 and 22 at 6 PM. Summer Scholars, a national model for summer literacy and recreation programs will be highlighted.Studies show that far too few students spend any of their summer time engaged in activities that maintain and sharpen their academic skills-particularly critical reading skills-that were gained during the school year. As a result, many students experience a "summer slide": scoring lower on reading and math achievement tests at the end of the summer than they did on the same tests before summer break. Teachers are often required to spend up to six weeks going over the same lessons their students were taught the previous school year.
The June edition of
Education News will showcase Summer Scholars as a model of an effective summer learning program and explore innovative strategies to academically engage and nurture low-income and disadvantaged youth during the summer. Executive Director of Summer Scholars, Anne Byrne, will join a live panel of educators, policymakers, parents and community leaders to discuss key education issues.
Education News Parents Can Use has won national recognition for its program quality, technical excellence and service to the community. Honors include the Telly Award for outstanding local, regional and cable television; the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Media Award; and the National Association of Government Communicators' Gold Screen Award.
Summer Scholars has been operating its award-winning summer program for fourteen years. In collaboration with Denver Parks & Recreation, Summer Scholars has impacted the lives of 15,000 academically-struggling elementary students. Summer Scholars is unparalleled in the services it provides to the Denver community being the largest and most successful summer tutoring provider. In 2005, Summer Scholars was awarded the National Excellence in Summer Learning Award from the Center for Summer Learning at JohnsHopkinsUniversity. Additionally, Summer Scholars has been granted the prestigious Charles L. Tutt Award for Excellence in Education, and has been commended twice by the Denver City Council for outstanding service to the community.
For more information, contact Leandra Lipson with Summer Scholars at 303-355-0290 or llipson@summerscholars.org.