Young Audiences’ Summer Arts & Learning Academy (SALA), the innovative, free, five-week arts-integration program for Baltimore City Public Schools students, will double in size this summer, expanding to eight sites and serving nearly 2,200 students across Baltimore City.

New data show that arts integration at SALA reduces summer learning loss and improves academic performance.

The Academy will be held July 9 to August 10, 2018, at eight sites: Commodore John Rodgers Elementary, Lakeland Elementary/Middle, Steuart Hill Academic Academy, Lyndhurst Elementary, Sinclair Lane Elementary, Gardenville Elementary, Edgecombe Circle Elementary and the newly renovated and expanded Dorothy I. Height Elementary. Now in its fourth year, the program engages students in hands-on creativity while exploring math and literacy with local teaching artists and teachers.

Students will participate directly with 86 teaching artists (local, working artists trained for classroom instruction) – twice as many artists as last year – working in a variety of mediums including painting, songwriting, poetry, illustration, dance, music, photography, playwriting, and filmmaking. Students might find themselves writing songs to summarize main ideas in a story with musician Lisa Mathews, or creating dance sequences to remember the steps in solving math word problems with dancer Cynthia Chavez.

Other local artists teaching at the Academy include Valerie Branch (dance), Scott Paynter (reggae musician), Mama Sallah (ceramics), Femi the Drifish (slam poetry), and Marian McLaughlin (guitar).

Along with the Academy’s expansion this year comes new opportunities for students through various partnerships, including athletics with Morgan State University and one on one reading tutoring with Reading Partners. These expanded offerings will be available to all students, with opportunities to participate in sports, to learn to code, and to have one-on-one literacy tutoring. Students will also perform at Artscape in July, Baltimore’s largest arts festival, and at pop-up performances around the city. SALA applications opened March 1.

“Every single day, I see how infusing creativity into learning transforms classrooms and children,” said Young Audiences President and CEO Stacie Sanders Evans. “We’re overjoyed to know that the Summer Arts & Learning Academy’s expansion this summer will help us reach twice as many students with arts integration—an approach that research shows works, especially in summer months.”

Data released in January 2018 by City Schools and Young Audiences show that students in 2017’s Summer Arts & Learning Academy significantly reduced summer learning loss in reading and math, and improved writing skills. Summer learning loss—when students lose academic ground over the summer months—is among the most difficult challenges facing the Baltimore school district and many others across the country.

“Young Audiences’ summer program gives students the chance to express themselves creatively, pursue their interests, and be inspired to reach their potential, things that we’ve also been focusing on this school year as part of our blueprint for success,” said Dr. Sonja Brookins Santelises, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools. “We’re excited by our partnership with Young Audiences and the positive results our students have seen in the program in past years. By expanding the program this coming summer, more students can enroll and will start next school year off stronger.”

City Schools study shows that in reading, third through fifth grade SALA attendees experienced negligible summer learning loss (less than one percentile point) in i-Ready standardized testing compared with more than three percentile points lost by all other students in the district. In math, third through fifth graders regularly attending SALA lost only 3.77 percentile points in i-Ready standardized testing. City Schools students with no summer activities lost nearly twice that, at an average of 5.77 percentile points.

According to an analysis by Young Audiences, all third through fifth grade SALA attendees improved their writing content and structure in pre to post testing. Particularly strong improvements came from students furthest behind their grade level. In addition to the academics, SALA experienced the highest rate of attendance of any elementary summer programming in the district.

Click here for more information on Young Audiences Summer Arts & Learning Academy.

Links to complete Young Audiences and City Schools evaluations:

YAMD evaluation

City Schools evaluation