Host & Guests
Host: Charlotte Phillips, Senior Officer, Youth Development Strategy and Operations at The Wallace Foundation
Moderator: BiNi Coleman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, 212 Catalysts
Lisa McNeill, Accelerated Learning Program Lead at The Varnett Public School
Kasie Roden, Director of PK-12 STEM and My Camp Program Manager at the Grand Prairie Independent School District
We talk more about climate and culture... because we want to make sure that summer learning is an environment that people enjoy coming into.
— Lisa McNeill
About the Episode
In the fourth episode of A Hot Time for Summer Learning, Wallace examines how Texas districts are finding ways to sustain high-quality and engaging summer learning programs in the face of funding changes. School district leaders from Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex discuss the significance of community outreach and support in promoting the need for and benefits of summer learning programs. They share how heightened public awareness and program engagement have led to an increased understanding of summer learning’s value, particularly among teachers, students and families who experienced the program and are eager to preserve it.
The discussion explores ways programs have fostered engagement, from grassroots marketing to developing districtwide task forces dedicated to ensuring summer learning addresses student needs and interests. These endeavors have helped boost enrollment, recruit program teachers and staff, and extend program strategies beyond summer and into classrooms during the school year.
About the Series
High-quality summer learning plays an important role in the lives of our nation’s young people. Summer learning programs can bolster academic knowledge and skills and connect young people to engaging and enriching learning experiences. In the wake of the pandemic, high-quality summer learning programming has become an essential part of children’s learning recovery and well-being. A multi-partpodcast series from The Wallace Foundation features leading field experts, researchers and practitioners who are involved in summer learning and enrichment on the national, state and local levels.
