Alabama superintendent talks up summer learning at White House
Alabama State Superintendent Eric Mackey is headed to the White House to share Alabama’s experience with summer reading and math camps Wednesday afternoon.
“We’ve gotten a lot of notice around the country because we’ve poured so much into summer reading and math,” Mackey said. The state has poured an estimated $101 million of federal pandemic relief money into funding those programs.
“We have seen some growth in reading,” Mackey said. “Math is a little bit behind the reading, so we’ll find out a little more at the end of this year. But in reading, because we have a really good way to measure it, we’ve been able to see some pretty significant growth where the kids have come to camp.”
Mackey is one of six participants invited to talk about how to accelerate learning to improve student achievement. The governors of Maryland, New Jersey and New Mexico will participate as will the chief state school officers – akin to Alabama’s state superintendent position – of Connecticut and Washington, D.C.
The Biden administration is announcing its Academic Acceleration Agenda for 2024, which is focused on proven strategies to improve academic success for all children based on the following components:
- increasing student attendance,
- high-dosage tutoring; and
- summer learning and expanded and afterschool learning time.
Mackey said he is excited about being asked to participate.
“I’m so happy to have just a small stage to highlight the really good things that are going on,” he said. “I think the broader audience has a more negative view about education in Alabama, so it’s nice anytime I can take the bully pulpit for our students.”