Vacation is looming for area schoolchildren, but studies show that squandered summer hours normally reverse academic progress achieved.
Some area parents are enrolling their kindergarten through sixth-graders in the free summer school programs of Building Educated Leaders for Life, an area nonprofit that says its “scholars” actually advance six months academically as a result of its intervention.
“We provide summer and after-school programming throughout Baltimore City as well as other cities throughout the nation,” BELL Regional Director Nadia Bryan said. “We do a rigorous academic and enrichment program ? that we believe will, in partnership with other organizations, dramatically increase self-esteem and life opportunities of children living in urban areas.”
The Boston-based organization was founded in 1992 as a community service project of the Harvard Black Law Students Association. The three-year-old Baltimore chapter offers eight hours of “Summer Success” math, literacy and enrichment instruction, five days a week for six weeks in the summer. Enrichment activities vary from dance classes and chess clubs to the “physics of roller coasters” seminars and field trips.
“I think it?s an excellent program,” said Sharon Mayers, mother of two Guilford Elementary and Middle school students who attend BELL classes. “What I like about it is that the children enjoy learning there.”
Last year, BELL?s summer program served about 1,800 Baltimore City children at 13 schools. Eight of the schools continued with an after-school program during the school year, which provides 2.5 hours of math, literacy and “choice-time” activities under the auspices of another nationally recognized curriculum, called “After School Achievers.”
With a full-time staff of 15 and about 80 part-time teachers conducting the classes, the $1 million-a-year nonprofit, which last year won a city summer schooling contract, is experiencing increasing demand for its services, Bryan said.
“It was just a real good learning experience for children,” said Angela Harris, PTA president and parent of a former BELL student at Thomas G. Hayes Elementary School.
