Students encouraged to “Maintain the Brain” during summer break
It’s known as the “summer slide” by experts and is far from being as exciting as it sounds. The summer slide is the result of young minds resting in idle during the three-month break from school, sometimes losing more than two months of learning.
To prevent the summer slide, Broken Arrow Public Schools is launching an exciting summer program called “Maintain the Brain,” which will provide students with ongoing learning opportunities through online learning platforms with a number of incentives and prizes from June 1 to July 31. Students do not need to sign-up to participate in this summer program.
“Research shows that high-quality summer programs make a difference in learning loss and closing educational gaps,” said Kristin Henness, the district’s executive director of teaching and learning. “Our students have shown growth using these programs throughout this year, and we want to maintain those gains over the summer. A student only needs to work on the program 20 minutes a day, 4-5 days a week to maintain their skills.”
Additional information for students and parents/guardians can be found below. Should you have questions, please contact 918-259-7784 or email maintainthebrain@baschools.org.
Additional Info for Students & Parents/Guardians
The programs are provided free to all families by funds from the Reading Sufficiency Act and the Elementary & Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund.
- Current students in grades Pre-K through 2* will utilize Waterford Early Learning. (*If the 2nd grader completed Waterford during the school year, they will have access to Imagine Learning.) (View or download upcoming parent virtual training sessions.)
- Current students in grades 3-5 will utilize Imagine Learning.
- Current students in grades 6-8 will utilize IXL.
All programs can be accessed through the student’s Clever account.
DID YOU KNOW?
- Only 48% of parents have heard about the summer slide.
- Often students regress academically causing teachers to spend up to 4 weeks re-teaching content learned from previous years.
- 91% of teachers say students forget or lose skills learned during the prior school year.
- On average, students in grades 3-5 lose 20% of their reading gains and 27% of their math gains during summer break.
- By the end of 6th grade, students who have experienced summer learning loss over the years are on average two years behind their peers.
So, let’s stop the summer slide! Will YOU help us Maintain the Brain, BA?