A pilot program that blends academics with enrichment activities had elementary and middle school students creating a magazine on Bronx wildlife, cooking up fresh omelets and learning a salsa dance routine -- and that was just on Thursday.
“It’s fun. You can be creative, and you get to do work and fun stuff at the same time,” said Zoe Perez, a rising fourth grader at P.S. 211, one of 11 sites in the South Bronx where nearly 1,800 students are enrolled this summer.
The program, called Summer Quest, is now in its second year of a three-year pilot that aims to help close the achievement gap between low-income students and their higher-income peers. SchoolBook profiled a student going through the first year of Summer Quest last summer.
The idea is to prevent “summer learning loss,” which can accumulate and have lasting effects into high school. The National Summer Learning Loss Association notes that lower-income children tend to lose reading skills over the summer while higher-income children gain them. Both groups tend to lose math skills.
The program is a joint collaboration between the Department of Education and the Department of Youth and Community Development, as well as the community groups Good Shepherd Services and Children’s Aid society.
On Thursday, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott and Commissioner Jeanne Mullgrav visited P.S. 211 to observe program classes and activities.
“This represents a new program that shows a lot of promise and a lot of hope,” said Mullgrav. “We may be getting some tough news on other fronts, but we know that this is working.”
While any student can apply to participate in the program, some of the students are required to participate because they are vulnerable to falling behind. Roughly one-quarter of the more than 350 students participating in the program fall under this category.
But while both students in Summer Quest and those in summer school need extra supports over the summer, the two programs are vastly different.
Summer Quest runs for a full day, serves meals and combines a schedule of academic classes with hands-on projects, field trips and a camp-like atmosphere.
Summer school, on the other hand, runs for half-days and is focused on getting students to retake modified versions of state tests at the end of the term.
Walcott said he sees value in both programs, but that Summer Quest is focused on preventing summer slide.
“The difference is this is to prevent summer learning loss. So for those students who really have measured well during the school year, we don't want them to lose what they’ve learned,” Walcott said.
Currently, the program has sites in the South Bronx, but the Department of Education has said that, over the next few years, it hopes to expand the program to all five boroughs.
