Summer Is Prime Time for Building School-Community Partnerships

Ron Fairchild

As school districts across the country cut summer school to deal with budget crises, Minneapolis (Minn.) Public Schools is expanding summer learning opportunities to thousands of young people. Minneapolis isn't spinning its own gold or enjoying a surplus. Instead, the 36,000-student district, which faces the same financial pressures as other school systems, is beating the national trend by building new partnerships to launch Camp MPS, the product of a two-year effort to overhaul summer school for elementary and middle school students.

The program features a range of offerings that build essential academic knowledge and skills in morning sessions and provide high-interest recreation and enrichment activities in the afternoon. Minneapolis's expanded summer programming will stretch to six hours each weekday for five weeks, and a pilot program will extend for eight hours a day over a six-week period.

Educators in Minneapolis and other cities like Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh are finding that some of the best opportunities for schools to build relationships with parents and community groups happen outside of the traditional school schedule, and particularly during the summer. Partnerships with museums, camps, youth groups, and outdoor education organizations allow participants to stretch limited resources, provide a broader range of educational activities, and create greater alignment among parent, school, and community efforts to keep kids on the path to healthy development and academic success.

The approach in Minneapolis reflects a new vision of summer learning being adopted by districts looking to move away from the remedial and often punitive model that has long defined summer school. Those districts are tapping into federal and state school-improvement funds, as well as contributions from private organizations, to not only maintain but also revamp their summer learning programs.

Minneapolis Public Schools spends $6 million in public and private funds annually on its summer programming, much of it available thanks to Minnesota's graduation incentive law, which allows schools to use targeted state funding for out-of-school programs for students who meet eligibility requirements. Community organizations, like Wilderness Inquiry and parks and recreation centers, have become partners in the effort, bringing needed resources and expertise into the schools.

Summer program providers are natural allies of schools. They often serve the same families; have established relationships with parents, youth, and local leaders; and share a commitment to nurturing students' skills and interests. Strengthening and expanding such partnerships is one of the nine principles advocated by the National Summer Learning Association in its new vision for summer school.

By collaborating with community organizations, schools are better able to help students pursue their passions during the summer months, whether in the arts, science, or the outdoors, says U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. In a video interview released by the Education Department last year, Duncan called summer learning programs "one of the best investments schools can make." Partnerships, he added, allow schools to leverage limited resources to extend learning through summer activities that are both engaging and educational. In some cases, they may also allow for joint planning, staff training, and promotional activities.

Parents form a critical part of the equation as well. Although schools should develop strong relationships with parents year-round, they can reinforce those connections during the summer break. High-quality summer programs consider families primary stakeholders and build in opportunities for parents and guardians to participate and volunteer.

Parents play a key role in getting students to attend and participate in summer learning programs, so it's important that they understand the goals and benefits for their children. Communicating those messages to parents, as well as sharing positive and constructive feedback about program activities and their children's progress, can deepen parents' commitment to the program and motivate them and their children to participate more fully.

Creating stronger links between school, community, and families ultimately benefits students and learning. Young people in Minneapolis and other cities finding ways to invest in and expand summer learning will reap these benefits for years to come. Even in difficult fiscal times, policymakers, community leaders, and educators must be creative and committed to providing enriching summer experiences. Cutting these programs may be the expedient answer, but it is not the right one.

Ron Fairchild is the chief executive officer of the National Summer Learning Association in Baltimore, Md.

ASCD Express, Vol. 5, No. 21. Copyright 2010 by ASCD. All rights reserved. Visit www.ascd.org/ascdexpress.