Christopher Gale, a counselor at the Northeast Frankford Boys & Girls Club, had an ambitious goal this summer: Immerse his campers in 30 minutes of structured reading time every day.

He was motivated by the phenomenon known as summer learning loss, or summer slide, that is contributing to low literacy rates among Philadelphia’s children.

Gale recently learned that when children aren’t engaged in some form of academic enrichment over the summer months, they lose months of knowledge and fall behind when they return to classes in the fall.

It’s a problem that contributes to low literacy and graduation rates and high dropout rates in Philadelphia schools. According to Public Citizens for Children and Youth, 74 percent of children who cannot read proficiently by the completion of 3rd grade struggle in later grades and are four to six times more likely to drop out.

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