Grant Awarded To Fund Summer Literacy Program

We’ve spoken about how hard the last year and a half has been for students. There have been many students that have had to experience a different kind of learning, be it distance learning or some form of hybrid learning. Beyond just the location where students are learning, there’s also the stress of a global pandemic. The question has been asked how student’s overall learning, development, and retention would be impacted. Terms like “learning loss” have been brought up to describe some of the effects.

And research has been conducted to show that students overall have seen learning loss from the circumstances during the pandemic. In response to this dilemma, funding has been released to improve literacy.

“There is clear evidence that students are learning less during lockdown than in a typical year. These losses are evident throughout the age range we study and across all of the three subject areas: math, spelling, and reading.”

National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

This means that students may need extra help to even begin to recover. This is why it’s great to hear about a $16,000 grant awarded to The Friends Foundation of the Birmingham Public Library.

The Impacts of Deficit Learning

The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham has awarded this grant to BPL to address learning deficits (learning loss) caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding will go towards offering free reading and math tutoring for second-and third-grade students attending Birmingham city schools.

The A+ Education Partnership did some research on the impact of learning loss on Alabama students. Here is what their research discovered:

• Students could be losing 5-9 months of learning
• Strains on social and emotional learning & student mental health
• Lack of social connection
• Less access to teachers
• Canceled extracurricular activities
• Increased food insecurity due to lack of free school meals for students
• Less child abuse reporting

This can be potentially incredibly damaging to the well-being of these students. Overall, this kind of program will be useful in helping students catch up on academics. Five different libraries will offer this program, and it will run from Monday, June 14, and runs through July 8. Each library will have tutors who will either be juniors or seniors in high school or college students. A certified teacher will also oversee this program in each library location.

Funding for Increased Learning

There are grants available for communities and programs that focus on education, literacy, and continued research. Discover grants for education on grant listing databases such as GrantWatch.com For more information, you can also visit the GrantWatch FAQ page. We wish you the best of luck with your grant-seeking!