Atlanta's Academic Recovery Academy boosts student success

Fun program raises students' test scores

Three years after the pandemic put everything on pause and caused a nationwide learning loss, Atlanta Public Schools says student scores are showing signs of improvement. It may be thanks to the district's Academic Recovery Program. It's also in its third year of offering free summer classes and activities that could be making all the difference.

ATLANTA - It's been three years since the pandemic put everything on pause and caused a nationwide learning loss. Now, Atlanta Public Schools (APS) says student scores are showing signs of improvement.

This June, and for the third year in a row, the district's Academic Recovery Academy offered free summer classes and activities to all students. The academy aims to slow the summer slide and catch students up on what they didn't learn in online classes during the pandemic lockdown.

It's all day. In the morning, students focus on reading and math. In the afternoon, they use their hands and feet through science and soccer.

Atlanta Public Schools' Academic Recovery Academy gives students a fun learning boost in the summer. (FOX 5 Atlanta)

Participating students couldn't wait to tell FOX 5 what they were learning.

"Did you know bunnies eat their own poop to get nutrients?" Josephine Van asked reporters Tuesday. Kids really do say the darnedest things.

Johana Kernizana-Van, an APS teacher, enrolled her daughter Josephine into the program. She said the voluntary academy is irreplaceable, especially when she remembers the struggle of trying to educate her daughter from home while teaching her own class in 2020.

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Atlanta Public Schools' Academic Recovery Academy gives students a fun learning boost in the summer.

From: FOX 5 Atlanta

"Her love of learning was impacted," she said. "Trying to teach a 4-year-old you have to go to school in an iPad was very difficult."

Data shows students who spent about three weeks in Atlanta Public Schools' Academic Recovery program exceeded their projected reading and math assessment scores. That news has leaders feeling especially optimistic about the upcoming academic year.

Students also seem to be more enthusiastic, looking forward to learning.

Atlanta Public Schools' Academic Recovery Academy gives students a fun learning boost in the summer. (FOX 5 Atlanta)

"We make very cool experiments," Josephine said. "Some are edible, some are not, like Sprite ice cream."

"They are now excited about summer school, and excited to come. One student went on vacation and was ready to come right back," said Yolanda Harrell, the lead psych coordinator for the academy.