Summertime is here and all our favorite aspects of this humid season are in full bloom—salt water taffy, sunscreen, ice cream, and, of course, tutoring. Summer session for the Neighborhood Tutoring Program (NTP) began on Monday, June 23rd.
The summer academy operates only slightly differently than our school year program, specifically in the fact that there are two programs per week in reading and math rather than one (and that programs last a little over one month instead of seven, 11 sessions each compared to 27).
While most students would be horrified to spend time during their summers doing work, our program and curriculum allows our students to enjoy tutoring in conjunction with games, friends, and our wonderful volunteers.
The summer academy is also a time for tremendous gains for our students. Last summer our math students achieved an average improvement of three months of grade level after an average of 11.7 hours of tutoring, our reading students five months after 13 hours—overall over 40% of our summer students last year made one year improvement or more.
Beyond that, there is evidence to suggest that students who transition between our school year programs and summer programs make a much greater leap than even that (although the numbers are too small to jump to any conclusions).
Needless to say, our team is excited to see all the gains that our students can make during these sweat-soaked months, and along with four wide-eyed, enthusiastic interns, we’ll attempt to make this summer more successful than the last.
(Jim Coleman is an NTP Site Coordinator at FLOC).
