The Learning Academy, a BASIC program, is a community-embedded "school without walls" summer program held at the Steele-Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center. Full-day classes began July 10, 2019 and continued for four weeks providing over 100 hours of instruction in a small group setting.

Reading Academy began four years ago to provide intensive reading/literacy instruction to 2nd and 3rd graders who needed a boost to achieve grade level proficiency.

In year two, an English Language Development (ELD) class was added to help middle/high school students achieve English proficiency. In year three Reading Academy became Learning Academy when a math classes was added for middle school students who needed a boost to grade level proficiency.

The reading and math classes occur at critical points where students falter, influencing their life-long learning trajectory. In this fourth year of BASIC's Learning Academy, a total of 33 students attended these three classes.

Program Objectives

- Improve their performance measured by pre- and post-testing and standardized tests and 35 – 50% of our students will reach their grade equivalent on a standardized test

- Develop positive attitudes toward reading or math or English and a love of learning

- Demonstrate greater than 95% daily attendance

2019 Outcomes for All Students

- 33 students enrolled and 33 students completed the 20-day program

- 97.4 % overall attendance rate

- 100% of 3rd grade reading/literacy students are at or about grade level for passage and word fluency; 50% of all reading/literacy students grew in passage fluency and 41% grew in reading comprehension; one student moved from 25th to 75th percentile; in fall school testing 75% grew in language usage and 58% in reading over spring testing. (passage fluency = ability to read accurately, smoothly and with expression)

- 2 math students achieved grade level and 1 maintained grade level; 63% grew on grade level Common Core assessment; 40% changed percentile bands.

- 100% of the English Language Development students grew in passage fluency averaging a 23.6 words per minute increase; 50% of level 1 students grew in reading comprehension; one level 1 student who could not read the passage fluency at all ended the class reading sentences clearly and sounding out words.