Landmark Academy Students Show Growth, Avoid Summer Loss

By Lisa Gjellum, Asst. Principal, Landmark Academy

Summer learning loss has negative effects on students and teachers. Students fall behind and when they return to school teachers are forced to spend valuable instructional time re-teaching lessons from the previous year. Landmark Academy designed a summer learning program to alleviate this common occurrence. Students were encouraged to complete a packed filled with fun Colorado based activities, read daily and fill out logs which were returned to the school for a prize monthly, or attend our two week summer school program.

Many Landmark students took advantage of these programs and the evidence shows that they were very effective. Now that the Landmark students have completed the first session of the NWEA MAP testing we are seeing a significant reduction in summer loss amongst all grade levels. In first grade 96% of the students either grew or remained the same from the spring testing. In grades third through seventh 86% of the students grew or remained the same. Battling summer loss is possible and with the responsibility shown by Landmark students and parents it is preventable.