October 17, 2022

With the help of Elevate Tuscaloosa Funding, Tuscaloosa City Schools (TCS) is working to combat the “summer slide” in Tuscaloosa students – and it’s working. Thanks to TCS’s summer learning program, over 75% of K-3 students across the district exhibited no summer slide during the summer of 2022.  

“Summer slide” is a regression in learning among students during summer breaks from school. Since 2017, TCS has worked to combat this regression by providing students with a wide range of engaging activities to keep their minds active during the summer. TCS has shaped its summer learning program to be high-interest and high-impact, providing teachers an opportunity to design innovative and creative ways of learning for their students. Student feedback from the camp-style program was overwhelmingly positive. 

“I think I want to do summer learning every year because it’s really fun!” an elementary student said.  

Elevate Tuscaloosa funding is directed toward summer programming for elementary-aged children, which national research suggests is the most critical age range. Over 1,400 K-3 students participated in the summer learning programs – 60% of the total enrollment of the program. 

A total of 2,350 K-8 students participated in the program across 10 elementary sites, three middle school sites, and three high school sites. Every student who attended 15 or more days showed a chance of exhibiting no summer learning loss. 

“Education of our students is top priority,” Mayor Walt Maddox said. “Thanks to the leadership of the Tuscaloosa City Schools, summer learning has made great strides to help students and their families combat summer learning loss. It’s promising to see how many students were eager to learn this summer and I am hopeful summer slide will continue to decrease in Tuscaloosa.”

Learn more about summer learning here.