Summer Slide is a term used to describe the unfortunate event when a child is out of school for an extended period and loses what they have gained through daily instruction.  A study from Oxford Learning implies that when there is no learning, a child may lose months of overall learning— up to two months of Math and Reading are lost.   Then, when children return to school, it takes at least two to three months of the school year to regain the information they lost over the Summer.  It is at least November before the students in class are caught up.  Having lost three months of teaching during remediation for material from last year, the teachers are limited to the remainder of the school year to ensure that students learn subjects at their current grade.

Operation Xcel offers free afterschool tutoring/learning for elementary and middle school children at several sites in Guilford County.  What if additional tutoring wasn’t needed to catch up on lost information due to summer learning loss?  What if there was a STEAM-based academic enrichment summer camp that children could attend to maintain skills from last year to build upon?  Operation Xcel provides an answer to this dilemma. Operation Xcel offers its 3 Steps Ahead summer program, which is not all fun and games. Instead, it helps children maintain their academic success from the last school year and prepares them for the next grade. Operation Xcel offers 3 Steps Ahead to help students avoid the ‘Summer Slide’ with the bonus of fun and games.  3Steps Ahead Summer Camp offers three hours of academic-focused programming, enrichment, poetry, and robotics four times a week.  The children also go swimming and on weekly field trips at no cost to the families.  What Operation Xcel Summer Camp offers that most do not is a unique focus on academic learning and growth.

Research shows that it costs $1049 per week per child to attend ID Tech Camps, and between $700-$1000 per week for other coding or STEM Summer camps in Greensboro.   Operation Xcel Summer Camp provides learning continuity for children to avoid the results of Summer Slide, and its cost to families is ‘free ninety-nine’.  That is better translated as FREE.  National and local news outlets, including Guilford County, have reported food insecurity in our state. Although Guilford County Schools recognize the need to continue providing lunch during the summer by offering free meals for families to pick up, many lack transportation to get there. Operation Xcel aims to eliminate this stigma and support families that feel stigmatized about getting free meals.  All students get free breakfast, lunch, and a snack each day during the summer camp. Mrs. Gladney, the founder/Chief Executive Officer of Operation Xcel, is committed to ensuring that children do not have to worry about food or shame.  Operation Xcel programs foster social and emotional learning while providing children who attend the 3-Steps Ahead summer camp with tools and intercommunicative learning to be more resilient.

The expenses of paying its certified teachers at both Operation Xcel After School and Summer Camp programs and all other camp expenses are covered primarily by grant funding, donations, and sponsorships.  The certified teachers at Operation Xcel have the flexibility to be creative in how they teach/tutor by providing more hands-on activities with students on the same path toward increased learning and retention in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) areas. 

The answer to Summer Slide is Operation Xcel’s Summer Camp. There are still available slots at some locations.  Visit our website to register your child(ren) using this link: https://operationxcel.org/enroll-now.html

This year, we added two 2-week intensive summer programs at Jackson Middle and Jamestown Middle schools for rising 9th graders.  These 2-week programs are designed to help rising 8th graders transition to high school.  There are still available slots for Rise-9 at both locations.  These camps start soon.  Enroll your rising 9th grader using the following link:  https://afterschoolhq.com/OperationXCEL