Celebration Includes National Read Aloud of Award-Winning Book, Trombone Shorty.

Goodbye homework, pop quizzes and science projects!

Hellooo summer – a time when millions of students kick back, chill out and ‘check out.’ The summer months of June, July and August, however, present a classic case of the “summer slide,” when most kids can lose academic skills they worked hard to learn during the school year.

There’s nothing fun about this kind of slide. It’s a well-documented phenomenon where students can lose up to three months of progress in reading and math, and these losses add up.

As part of National Summer Learning Day, thousands of children will take part in a national read-aloud of the award-winning book, Trombone Shorty, the true story of a boy in New Orleans who follows his passion to become a professional musician.

The book’s acclaimed illustrator and 2016 Caldecott Honor recipient, Bryan Collier will serve as this year’s national Summer Learning Ambassador and the Alvar Branch of the New Orleans Public Library will have a reading that from 12:30-1:30 pm. 

By fifth grade, summer learning loss can leave low-income students almost three years academically behind their higher-income peers.

Summer is also an expensive and challenging time for families who don’t have access to affordable summer programs or child care options. On average, families who paid for their child’s summer learning program spent $288 per week – that’s more than $2,000 for eight weeks of summer programs.

With all of these factors at play, July 12th has been designated as National Summer Learning Day – an advocacy day, led by the National Summer Learning Association (NSLA), aimed at elevating the importance of keeping all kids learning, safe and healthy every summer as well as promoting affordable, quality summer enrichment options for families.

Visit summerlearning.org/events to find Summer Learning Day events or programs throughout the country.

National Summer Learning Day is supported in part by the following corporate, media and program partners: Carson-Dellosa Publishing Group, Clear Channel Outdoor, iHeartRadio, Litton Entertainment, EverFi, Scholastic Inc., Lands’ End, Learning Heroes, Association for Library Service to Children, the Association of Children’s Museums, the Afterschool Alliance, National League of Cities and the National Center for Afterschool and Summer Enrichment.

####

About National Summer Learning Association

The National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) is the only national nonprofit exclusively focused on closing the achievement gap by increasing access to high-quality summer learning opportunities. NSLA recognizes and disseminates what works in summer learning, develops and delivers capacity-building offerings and convenes and empowers key actors to embrace summer learning as a solution for equity and excellence in education. For more information, visit summerlearning.org.