The Results: Horizons Summer Gains

Our goal is to address the achievement gap and prevent summer slide by helping students stay at their grade levels rather than lose academic skills over the summer. On average, Horizons students improve 8 to12 weeks in reading and math skills over the six-week summer period. Those gains, when added to the “summer slide” our students thus avoid, leave our students 5-6 months ahead of where they would have been without Horizons.

ATTENDANCE AND RETENTION

Lasting connections create the greatest impact, so Horizons makes retention and attendance a priority. Horizons at USN averages 90% retention rate and attendance rate.

SWIMMING

In predominantly minority communities, the youth drowning rates are often 2 to 3 times higher than the national average; that is why every Horizons student learns how to swim. Most students come to the program as non-swimmers who are afraid of the water. We have found that when their teachers join them in the pool, students learn trust and build self-esteem – and those qualities carry over into the classroom.

This summer, 100% of Horizons students learned basic swim skills and almost half of our Horizons students are now considered proficient swimmers.