Summer Success: A Kindergarten Readiness Summer Camp
Date
2019-04
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ohio State University. Office of Outreach and Engagement
Abstract
Summer Success is a kindergarten readiness program designed to provide kindergarten-bound children with four weeks of targeted instruction in key kindergarten readiness skills. Skills include language, literacy, math, and social-emotional, as well as an interest in creative arts and gross motor skills. The four-week, 140-hour program provides high-quality instruction that explicitly addresses these skills, helping children arrive to kindergarten ready to learn. Through partnerships with organizations such as the City of Columbus, PNC Bank, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus Museum of Art, Franklin Park Conservatory, and Center of Science and Industry, children are able to engage in high-quality field trips that reinforce concepts from the classroom.
Description
Ensuring children arrive to kindergarten ready to learn is an important issue in early childhood education and policy. In Ohio, many children arrive to kindergarten without the requisite skills needed to succeed. Children facing adversities such as homelessness, hunger, or poverty are at a greater risk for poor kindergarten readiness. This achievement gap may persist over time, setting children from low-income backgrounds on a trajectory of poor academic and social outcomes, as well as greater potential for lower occupational attainment and higher rates of drug use, delinquency, and mental health problems. Summer Success, a kindergarten readiness camp, was designed to provide kindergarten-bound children with four weeks of targeted instruction in key kindergarten readiness skills. These skills include literacy, language, math, and social emotional skills, as well as an interest in creative arts and gross motor. The four-week, 140-hour program provides instruction that explicitly addresses these skills, helping children arrive to kindergarten ready to learn. Summer Success targets children from low-income backgrounds who are at a heightened risk for entering kindergarten with poor academic skills compared to their peers. Summer Success served 59 children from the Weinland Park Community during the summers of 2016 and 2017, and 60 children in Weinland Park and Linden neighborhoods during the summer 2018. Outcomes and impacts included: 1) Increase in kindergarten readiness for a majority of the children across multiple domains. 2) Increased awareness in the community of the need for high quality early childhood care for children from at-risk populations. 3) Unique experiences for undergraduate students enrolled at Ohio State to work with children from high-risk populations using trauma-informed care. 4) Create a model that can be reproduced in other programs across the state. Impact is measured through pre- and post-test evaluations of each child enrolled. These assessments measure the gains obtained by each child and allow program staff to evaluate the effectiveness of the Summer Success curriculum. Curriculum is reviewed annually to ensure best practices are being followed and state standards are met. Community partners include the City of Columbus, PNC Bank, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus Museum of Art, Franklin Park Conservatory, Center of Science and Industry, the Hardy Center, and Columbus Trolley Company.
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Laura Justice, executive director, Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, justice.57@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Kari Welch*, literacy technician, Schoenbaum Family Center
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Laura Justice, executive director, Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, justice.57@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Kari Welch*, literacy technician, Schoenbaum Family Center
Keywords
early childhood, kindergarten readiness, educational program
Citation
Engaged Scholars, v. 7 (2019).