It's not often that, as principal of Conway Middle School in Louisville, Ky., Jeannie Lett gets to take field trips with students. But this summer, she tagged along with some of the school's rising 7th graders on a trip to an aviation school, where students learned how to launch model rockets and explored a hot air balloon on the ground.
While Lett learned a bit about flight on the trip, the most important lesson for her was seeing the students' excitement and desire for more information about careers in aviation. In fact, Lett didn't get a chance to take the throttle of a plane simulator because so many students wanted a turn.
"Our students aren't exposed to different things, especially different careers such as aviation, and I saw this as a great opportunity to expose our kids to something different," said Lett, who has been the school's principal for three years.
This summer, the school partnered for the first time with the local nonprofit I Would Rather Be Reading, or IWRBR, to provide the two-week summer program in June, as well as another two-week aviation-themed camp for rising 6th graders in July. About 35 students voluntarily participated in the first summer session, and 37 attended the second session.
Conway Middle School in Jefferson County School District is a Title I school and has about 700 students in grades 6-8.
Lett said a positive aspect of the partnership was IWRBR's expertise in creating a curriculum that exposed students to engaging and academic activities over the summer. "It was pretty much turnkey," said Lett.
While IWRBR provided the lessons and learning logistics — like field trips — the school provided the students, the space to host the summer programs, and $260,000 from federal American Rescue Plan funds dedicated to helping students recover from pandemic-related academic setbacks.
Addressing trauma
IWRBR's curriculum focuses on supporting students who have experienced trauma. This means social-emotional learning components — such as lessons on social skills, behavior management and mindfulness — are intentionally built into the program. The organization said many of the students supported by the organization's after school, summer camp and tutoring programs have experienced trauma due to gun violence, primarily through the loss of family members and friends.
Ashley Dearinger, co-founder of IWRBR, said the organization started its first summer learning program in 2018 with nine students by focusing on social-emotional learning and literacy. It now serves about 1,000 children in several different communities.
"We really just envision a future where all students, no matter what socioeconomic level they're at, have access to the same type of opportunities to help them become resilient learners, and eventual successful citizens in our larger community," Dearinger said.
To date, IWRBR has partnered with six schools and eight community centers for after-school and summer programs. The organization works with school systems and other organizations to offer after-school and summer programming, as well as family engagement sessions and professional development for educators and after-school providers.
All IWRBR programming is offered free of charge to the participating families. IWRBR receives funding through donations and grants.
Supporting summer learning
Like Conway Middle, many schools and districts have dedicated federal COVID-19 relief funding for summer learning programs.
A survey released earlier this year by the Association of School Business Officials International found that when planning and using relief money for student academic recovery needs, districts were prioritizing the expansion of summer learning and enrichment programs. The survey included school business professionals who are members of ASBO from 116 school districts in 38 states.
Lett said that federal COVID emergency funding has been helpful as the school seeks to support students who have experienced trauma. The aviation camp is "a great opportunity to expose our kids to something different, something that they may not ever get exposed to," Lett said.
"There are those kids who, they just need to be able to do something besides stay at home, to get their minds off of whatever's going on with them," she said.
Lett said she would advise schools to start as early as December to plan for next year's summer camp programs, particularly for school systems that are trying to align programming with certain funding streams.
Because of the success from the aviation camp, Conway Middle and IWRBR are planning to continue students' excitement about flight by creating a drone club, where students can explore how the small aerial devices can operate remotely.
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