t a time when many school campuses are silent for the summer, each elementary school in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District has a classroom bustling with activity, as small groups of students move between reading, writing and technology centers at the district’s Summer Literacy Camps.

Winner of a prestigious 2018 CSBA Golden Bell Award, the summer camps serve more than 800 elementary students who are six months to one year behind in reading when entering grades 1, 2 and 3. The Lake Elsinore USD board of trustees charged Assistant Superintendent Alain Guevera with creating the program. He said the focus on these early grades sets kids up for a foundation of success. “Research shows that if kids can’t read really well by third grade, they really struggle with the rest of their academic career.”

In fact, according to the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading — a network of national and local civic leaders, policymakers, advocates and community organizations with the aim of improving early reading comprehension — reading proficiency by third grade is the most important predictor of high school graduation and career success.

Each spring at Lake Elsinore USD, invitations are sent to select parents about their child’s participation. The primary goal of the Summer Literacy Camps is to prevent the “summer slide,” or summer learning loss. Students attend the camp at their local elementary school for four hours a day, four days a week, for a total of six weeks. Each group consists of no more than 20 students in a class staffed with three adults — two classified employees and one teacher, creating an individualized experience that the children cannot obtain during the regular school year.

After three years, the program has gone beyond stemming the summer slide: data shows participating students are reading at grade level as a result of the effort. “We are seeing great results from the camp — we’re seeing a lot of the kids that were potential retentions — after they go to the camp and retest at the end of summer, all of them have not been retained into that same grade level,” Guevera said.

— Stan Crippen, Board President, Lake Elsinore USD

An important factor in holding kids’ interest and rewarding progress is incorporating a variety of activities that the students enjoy. The program integrates art, STEM and language arts as students set off to explore a different world during their six-week interactive reading adventure; past themes have included activities related to the ocean and to the desert. To encourage steady attendance, students earn one book per week to start their own home library. The program also provides breakfast for the students and lunch for students and their families.

Acknowledging the importance of early intervention and the research around literacy, the Lake Elsinore USD board of trustees prioritized the program by building its funding into the district’s Local Control and Accountability Plan.

“Summer Literacy Camp builds successful readers and more confident students in their grade-level transition,” said Board President Stan Crippen. “Parents have also told us their children are more enthusiastic about learning as a result of their summer reading experience.”