This summer, children may not only be battling the “summer slide” – or loss of learning during the summer months – but now also a COVID slide, or gaps in academic growth due to pandemic learning disruptions from last year. 

Whether it is reading a favorite book, visiting a museum, or taking a virtual tour of a far-away destination, experts agree that parents and families should keep the learning process moving to combat these added months of learning loss. 

Oak Knoll School’s coeducational Summer Scholars Program, which debuted in 2011, is once again poised to help children fill in these gaps. Open to the public, the school’s Summer Scholars program offers students entering grades 6-12 opportunities to take courses online as previews or reviews in business, English, history, math, politics, science, and more. 

The Summer Scholars courses – available this summer online – are taught by Oak Knoll faculty as extensions of the Oak Knoll academic experience. All grade levels can choose from a variety of 14 courses, plus a three-part Career Series. The Career Series, including careers that have never been offered before, is led by professionals in the fields of engineering, finance, and law.

“Each summer the career series focuses on different careers with the intent of encompassing the future paths students want to take,” said Nicole Johnston, Oak Knoll’s History Department Chair and Academic Dean of the Summer Scholars program. 

Other courses new to the Summer Scholars program include the history course Democracy and Women’s Rights in America: The Fight Over the ERA, which goes beyond the curriculum offered in school. This summer’s new history course is taken from a case study from the Harvard Business School. Oak Knoll’s AP U.S. History students utilized many of these case studies throughout the school year and they are quite popular in the classroom. 

The other three new Summer Scholars courses include an Algebra 2 Workshop, Well-Written, and Public Speaking Fostering Civil Discourse. See the full list of offerings here.

“My intent when developing the courses for this summer was to prepare students for the upcoming academic school year with confidence as seeing some material over the summer provides that confidence,” said Johnston, who said that the math courses are usually most popular during the summer. “Secondly, I wanted courses that were separate from the standard school curriculum in hopes of developing a love of learning in students. Summer is a great time for students to take courses they would not have the ability to do during the school year. Although the curriculum of those courses might not match with their upcoming school schedule, the skills they will develop will help them. Skills are much more important in terms of preparation.” 

Click here for more information about Oak Knoll School’s Summer Scholars program.