Redhound Enrichment Program featured in TIME Magazine article

An award-winning Corbin Independent Schools program that provides learning opportunities outside of the traditional classroom received more acclaim this week. It was mentioned prominently in a Time magazine article making the case against summer vacations.

Released officially Monday, the cover story for this week’s edition of Time Magazine is all about what may just be some better alternatives to the tradition of taking a summer break for students in our public schools.

Karen West, Special Projects Curriculum Supervisor for the Corbin Independent School System and Director of the Redhound Enrichment Program, said she’s proud of the mention her program received in the article and called it "unique" among small town school systems in Kentucky.

The Redhound Enrichment Program runs from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. during weekdays from the day after school dismisses each summer until the day it begins again in August. During the school year, students can participate from dismissal until 5:30 p.m. About 50 to 75 students in grades Kindergarten through six participate each summer.

The program, West said, provides students with a chance to retain and even build on skills and concepts they learned during the normal school year through "hands-on" learning.

"It’s not like traditional school. It’s all the things kids liked to do … there are no textbooks at all," she said. "We field trip at least three days a week."

The point of it all is to stop what researchers have dubbed "the summer slide." A study released from Johns Hopkins University shows that younger students lose an average of 2.3 months of skills during the summer. The loss is more pronounced among disadvantaged children from lower income homes.

"Some kids have good experiences in the summer and are in homes where while mom is working in the kitchen cooking, she’s talking about fractions or measurement, or the kids ar reading a lot," West said. "Those kids don’t fall behind, but about 70 percent do. That’s the gist of what all this is about."

The Time article points to numerous programs as examples of success when it comes to fighting off the summer slide. Included are a private group of philanthropies in Indianapolis, a program called "The Fifth Quarter" in the Cincinnati Public Schools and the Redhound Enrichment Program.

Redhound Enrichment was formed in 1991 mostly as a kind of day care program, said Mark Daniels, Director of Support Services for the Corbin Schools. In 1998, the school system received a federal 21st Century grant worth over $1 million and the program began to transform and focus more on learning.

"I’m not really surprised with what has happened. It just made sense. If you do the research and see what the trends are with better and expanded learning opportunities in the United States, it was just a perfect fit," Daniels said. "A lot of the content it focuses on is extremely difficult to stick in a six-hour day. This allows a prime time for that."

During the regular school year, Redhound Enrichment extends to middle school and high school students. The program is active during non-major holidays, and during downtimes like Spring and Fall Breaks. Daniels points out it is used to teach things like communications and media, theater arts and other subjects that aren’t really a part of the "core content" of what Kentucky students are expected to learn.

During the summers, West said the focus is on skill retention. The 10-week program has a theme for every week. This year’s overall theme for Redhound Enrichment, "Lights! Camera! Action!" utilizes popular and current movies as windows through which to learn. Each week has a different movie. When the Pixar animated adventure "Toy Story 3" was released, the theme for the week was "To Infinity and Beyond," a popular saying by a character in the film, Buzz Lightyear. It was used, she said, to focus that week on astronomy and space exploration. A mobile planetarium was brought in to help with the experience.

West said the program partners aggressively with local businesses and professionals willing to volunteer their time to help. About half the cost of the program is paid for through in-kind donations of time or resources. Students who attend pay a small fee, based on income, which takes care of the remainder.

Redhound Enrichment appears to be working.

It was named a "turnkey" program by the U.S. Department of Education last year, a designation given to a maximum of three programs nationwide every year. It was featured in a U.S. DOE documentary and West participated in a recorded panel discussion called "Education News Parents Can Use."

"When people are looking to set up summer programs, they call us," West said. "We have lots of visitors all summer long to see what we are doing. We are at the forefront."

But apart from mentions in national weekly news magazines and awards, there is data to show the program is actually a success.

West said all students who participated in Redhound Enrichment are tracked for their academic progress throughout the school year. They are also monitored for attendance and disciplinary issues. Over half of those students improve at least one letter grade in math and reading the following year. Over 70 percent score proficient or above in those two areas on mandatory state standardized tests. School officials also point to the focus on community service in the program as a reason Redhound Enrichment students have few disciplinary issues.

For Joshua Patton, a fourth grader who has participated in the program for three years, Redhound Enrichment beats staying at home doing nothing. He said he missed being a part of the program during a summer vacation with family this year.

"We get to go on field trips and stuff and get to learn. During the summer, I usually forget a lot of the math and science and stuff but this place does learning and makes it fun," he said. "I hated missing because they did some new stuff while I was gone with my parents to Missouri."