Two students enjoy a literacy game as part of the Jeffco Summer of Early Literacy program at Lasley Elementary.
The Jeffco Summer of Early Literacy (JSEL) program helps stave off summer slide among young readers. Students in the program spend three hours each morning, five days a week, for six-weeks receiving literacy instruction to prevent summer literacy loss and increase reading proficiency.
“[It also helps students make] literacy gains throughout the summer so that they’re ready to go when they come back in the fall,” explained Denise Delgado, Executive Director Jeffco Schools Foundation.
The Jeffco Schools Foundation began the program in 2012 with four schools. JSEL has been so successful that the District has increased its support to expand the program to 30 schools and serve even more Jeffco students this year.
“This is a very successful intervention program for our students, and that’s why we wanted to ramp it from the number of schools we’ve had in the past to the 30 schools that are participating this year at different sites,” said Dan McMinimee, Jeffco Public Schools Superintendent.
It’s the third year Lisa Nolan has been involved with JSEL as principal at Lasley Elementary. In that time, she has seen first-hand how well the program works.
“Students are learning at great lengths…they’re involved in their own learning…and our teachers are enjoying it because they have freedom … to work with students on more of a one-to-one basis. The student-teacher ratio is one to 15,” said Nolan.
The JSEL program uses the routines and structures from the literacy programs used throughout the regular school year, which keeps the learning consistent and helps the program to be successful. Students and teachers don’t have to adjust to a new way of learning. Instead, they can focus keeping and improving upon literacy skills.
“It’s great to be able to come into summer school and…not lose anything, but also be able to actually gain,” said Nolan. “Our data has shown that students were able to actually [improve] in their learning. They grew much quicker than they had when they left school. It really does help them quite a bit.”
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