Summer learning program in Baltimore ‘tremendously innovative and effective’

Nearly 20 afterschool learning professionals from South Carolina trekked to Baltimore City Public Schools last summer to observe what happens when you combine the arts with reading and math concepts. The contingent, part of The Riley Institute at Furman University’s South Carolina Afterschool Leaders Empowered (SCALE) program, visited Henderson-Hopkins School in East Baltimore. Amy Keeley, director of SCALE, wrote a commentary for The Baltimore Sun about BCPS’s Summer Arts for Learning Academy (SALA).

“We saw learning coming to life through the arts: students using songs to learn math, weaving paper to explore area and perimeter, mixing watercolors to understand ratio and practicing grammar rules through dance,” Keeley wrote. “Infusing arts into traditional academic curriculum – whether during the summer, afterschool, or as part of the school day – doesn’t have to be complicated, it just needs to be intentional and deliberate in providing interesting and joyful access to education content. The SCALE fellows were fortunate to witness that firsthand at SALA,” she added.