Mitchie Neel, the executive director of the Blount County Education Foundation in Alabama, knew what she was doing.
She had been running the school district’s summer learning programs since 2011. Before that, she was a teacher and K–12 curriculum coordinator.
Neel and her colleagues observed that students who participated in Dreamcatchers, a summer learning program in Blount County, grew an average of three to six months in reading and math proficiency — in just four weeks.
Blount County’s educational outcomes make them an invaluable member of the District Summer Learning Network (DSLN), a network of school districts that launched in 2022 to help districts nationwide create high-quality summer learning. FHI 360 runs DSLN, and The Wallace Foundation funds it.
DSLN works with school districts across the U.S. to help them align summer programs to research in ways that reinvigorate students, complement the school year and accelerate learning. This type of summer learning is a far cry from the typical summer school model of years past, which could be remedial or even punitive in nature.
When Blount County Schools joined DSLN, Neel enlisted the help of Superintendent Rodney Green. DSLN connected the two longtime educators to research, resources and relationships that made an already successful program even better.
By participating in DSLN, Green says, “we’re more confident of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. And we’ve learned, too. … It helped us refine our work.”
This year’s summer program, he notes, “is better than ever.”
A popular offering in a rural community
Just under 60,000 people live in rural Blount County, Alabama, located between Birmingham and Huntsville. The employment rate is 53 percent, and an estimated 17 percent of children under 18 live in poverty (2022 American Community Survey).
Dreamcatchers, which Neel helped start in 2016, is Blount County Schools’ flagship summer learning program. It is a full-day reading and math intervention program and one of the county’s nearly 50 summer learning offerings.
“The kids love Dreamcatchers. They talk about it all year,” says Ida Burton, a retired educator who serves as the program’s outreach coordinator for Hispanic families. “The parents do, too. They’ll stop by at the grocery store or at church and ask me about it.”
Specialized support for academic acceleration
Creating high-quality summer learning programs is more important than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic caused declines in reading and math skills across nearly all student groups in the U.S. It has also highlighted an increased need for focusing on student wellness.
In addition, an Alabama law sets out requirements for student reading levels that, in some instances, can prevent students from progressing to the next grade level. Faltering students can meet requirements by attending a summer learning program and getting retested.
“Moving a child [academically] who is struggling with reading is really hard,” says Neel. “And the more they fall behind, the harder it is.”
Dreamcatchers is designed so that children get the interventions and attention they need to be academically successful the following year. Classes have only 10 students each, in contrast to Blount County’s typical elementary class size of 20 to 25 students. The program also offers small-group or one-on-one sessions with literacy and math intervention specialists.
Developing the whole child
While moving students ahead in literacy and math are core components of Dreamcatchers, the programming takes a balanced approach to learning.
A day at Dreamcatchers looks different from the academic year. Students practice reading and math, but teachers incorporate more hands-on learning and blend academics with art and music, games and field trips.
Dreamcatchers develops children’s connections to their community and sense of well-being. This work aligns with core evidence from DSLN about the importance of providing for the whole child — not just focusing on learning gaps.
“We try to teach them how to talk to adults and to each other, how to make eye contact, how to express their feelings if they’re frustrated,” says Teresa Latham, Dreamcatchers’ co-director. “I feel like they get fed not only physically, but also emotionally.”
In addition, students receive free breakfast and lunch during school and food for the weekend. Buses transport children across the county, and children receive personal items such as new shoes and toiletries.
Putting opportunities within reach
Blount County Schools is one of nearly 100 school districts, across rural and urban under-resourced communities, that have participated in DSLN. Altogether, they have served more than 2 million schoolchildren across 27 states.
At the heart of DSLN’s work is making sure that every child in the U.S., especially those from communities that have been historically disenfranchised, has access to the same opportunities. The children of Blount County Schools, Neel says, deserve opportunities.
“Just because they’re born in Blount County doesn’t mean they don’t need to do theater, they don’t need to have music, they don’t need to do visual arts, they don’t need to have a place to come to, they don’t need to build skills,” she says.
Planning, collaboration and knowledge-sharing are key
Planning and preparation for high-quality, accessible summer learning begins months, even years, in advance.
DSLN member districts can access a host of resources to aid with planning and continuous improvement: evidence-based tools, a professional coach, and knowledge-sharing forums such as workshops and events.
Green notes that the DSLN road map tool helped them develop a true summer vision and beliefs. In addition, both Green and Neel say that DSLN has had a positive impact on the way they plan for summer programming and evaluate how effective those programs are.
“We brought more people to the table at the district level,” Neel says. “We had never met at that scale before.”
The new planning structure has enabled more knowledge-sharing within the school district, which means that summer programs across its 16 schools are benefitting from each other.
In addition, Blount County Schools officials share their best practices across DSLN, enabling other districts to learn from them. In turn, Neel says, she learns from other districts.
“Getting to hear from other people from around the country is incredible,” she says. “We get ideas from everywhere.”
‘We do know what we’re doing’
Neel is heartened that Blount County’s involvement in DSLN has reinforced their belief that their evidence-based approach works.
“A big part of our participation in DSLN has been affirmation that we do know what we’re doing,” she says. “The research is clear about what works, and we have listened.”
Students can — and do — benefit from summer programming. Many Dreamcatchers teachers and administrators note how participating children transform.
“[Dreamcatchers] is a place where maybe you’re not a leader during the normal school year, but here you get a place to shine,” says Denise Lybrand, an English language consulting teacher for Blount County Schools. “We really push being a leader and working hard and playing hard.”
And that growth begins quickly: “By the second day of summer learning, when the kids come in, they’ve bloomed,” says Neel. “They’ve become who they really are.”
All photos except the one of Blount County farmland are credited to Bita Honarvar for FHI 360. The farmland photo is credited to Jonathan Nolen for FHI 360.
