FACT:
According to Sarasota County
Schools, children who attended at
least half of the program increased
their reading scores by an average
of 7.6 points, compared to those
who didn’t attend who averaged only
a .3 increase.
MAY 2019 | SARASOTA SCENE 51
The intricacies of our education system can be frustrating
for those of us uninitiated with the workings of local, state,
and federal governments. Rather than walk away, bemoaning
“the system,” several area philanthropists have focused
their charitable giving on how to improve local schools so
students in need.
Connecticut residents who winter in Sarasota—wanted
to take on the achievement gap between low-income
show that 4 things can help close that gap.
• Summer learning
• Attendance
regression that takes place in the summer months, which
is far more pronounced in low-income families. So, in
at Alta Vista Elementary, a school with a large population of
low-income students. The Eagle Academy provided rising
Kindergarten students with six weeks of summer instruction
as well as two meals a day and opportunities for enrichment
activities that brought a sense of fun to the learning.
The next year, all Alta Vista students entering Kindergarten
that same summer program. Each year an additional grade
was added up through rising third graders. Third grade
is particularly important because that’s when statewide
in a student’s academic life. Back when the Summer Learning
Academy was launched, the statewide standardized test was
of the name, those are big tests with high stakes.
The success of the free Summer Learning Academy was
quickly apparent both anecdotally and from data accumulated
through benchmark testing and the I-Ready diagnostic tool
County and additional generous donors, Summer Learning
Academies expanded to three additional schools with high
numbers of low-income students to attempt to replicate the
increases in student achievement. The programs developed
at Emma E. Booker, Tuttle, and Gocio elementary schools,
and similar results were achieved.
In fact, the data allowed Sarasota County Schools
Superintendent Dr. Todd Bowden to appeal to legislators
in Tallahassee in 2017 for funding to support the expansion
of the Summer Learning Academies. While there, Dr. Bowden
heard again and again from other superintendents who
able to say that the Sarasota School District didn’t need
to pilot anything. They’ve already done that, and it was a
success. What they needed now was simply to expand it.
According to Sarasota County Schools, children who
attended at least half of the program increased their reading
scores by an average of 7.6 points. Those who didn’t attend?
They averaged only a .3 increase.
responded.
schools in Sarasota County will take part in the Summer
Learning Academies program. Attendance is expected to
eclipse the nearly 1,100 students who took part in summer