ATHENS, Ga. — Thirty students wrapped up a six-week summer program at the University of Georgia Thursday with a swim. Looking on, the First Lady of the United States and the U.S. Education Secretary. Dr. Jill Biden and Miguel Cardona counted down, as five and six-year-old students jumped into the pool. Minutes before, Biden and Cardona addressed parents, noting how American Rescue Plan funds were helping to address learning loss during the pandemic.
"That's why it was so important to pass the American Rescue Plan, because we knew we had to help our children, whether it was academically, emotionally, socially," Jill Biden said.
Voted on by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in 2021, the American Rescue Plan constituted $1.9 trillion in federal relief funds that were designed to address entities and families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools nationwide dealt with struggling students in subjects like reading and math.
"For me as an educator, the one thing I try to give students is confidence, because they feel like they can do whatever it is, whether it's math or English, history or swimming," Jill Biden said. "It doesn't matter. Confidence is the most important thing, that they feel good about themselves."
Dr. Jill Biden and Cardona visited students from Barnett Shoals Elementary School. The two were in the middle of a three-state tour, touting the success of the American Rescue Plan in schools. She continued with the Athens visit, even after she learned her husband tested positive for the coronavirus.
The First Lady and Cardona also met with staff from Horizons Atlanta, an organization that works on filling learning gaps for students. Horizons Atlanta Executive Director Alex Wan said the six-week summer program, in partnership with UGA, works with 30 students and uses nearly $200,000 in American Rescue Funds to operate.
“We were having to teach them even how to hold a pencil, form letter because if you think about it, those aren’t really things you can learn online," Wan said. "We can usually move our scholars forward eight to 12 weeks, sometimes double the time we have them in literacy and math. Not only are we preventing summer slide, we’re also setting them up for success in the fall.”
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Wan said the federal relief funds help to increase access for students, so more can enroll over each summer. He also noted the improved quality of the program and the removal of certain barriers so more families can take advantage of free transportation to get there.
Wan said Horizons Atlanta looks at three metrics to determine the success of the program: retention, or how many students return; assessments, or how well students did on tests involving reading and math from the start to the end of summer; and attendance, as students develop good school habits.
Aliceson Nobles, the principal at Barnett Shoals Elementary, said beyond academics, she's noticed better emotional well-being and improved social skills from kids who go through the program.
"They are now motivated to do, they have those skills that were nurtured throughout the summer to get them to want to write and want to read," Nobles said. “We’re doing whatever it takes to get the job done so that we can close those gaps, whatever it takes so they’re afforded those opportunities that they wouldn’t have received this summer.”
11Alive found students who attended programs in 2021 avoided a summer slide in English and math. Some of the largest school districts in Georgia received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal relief funds and used them to directly address learning loss. In fact, Fulton County's Bridge to Success program grew by more than 800 kids from 2021 to 2022.
Michael Williams currently has one student enrolled in the Horizons Atlanta program. He said Dr. Biden and Cardona's visit this week shows a commitment to education on the local and national level.
“So much of education isn’t just simple arithmetic or learning how to read and write. It’s all of the soft skills that work around having relationships with peers, working with adults you’re not familiar with, being able to negotiate and work in a classroom setting," Williams said. "It shows the support isn’t just here locally, it’s beyond that. It reinforces, I think, all the work parents have been putting in and show that schools nationwide are really behind this.”