East Orange schools to host summer reading launch party

EAST ORANGE, NJ — To help combat the summer learning loss phenomenon, the East Orange School District’s Division of Curriculum & Instruction will host its second summer reading launch party on Thursday, June 2, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Glenwood campus, located at the rear of 135 Glenwood Ave. in East Orange. The event’s goal is to bring awareness to the East Orange community of the potential long-term effects summer reading has on student academic success. There will be food, prizes, entertainment, music and games for all to enjoy. 

Research conducted by St. John’s University reported that students could expect, on average, to lose two months of reading skills and 2.6 months of math computational skills over the summer. Since learning loss is cumulative over time, a sixth-grader can lose more than 18 months of learning due to summer learning loss. Therefore, the district’s mission is to make culturally engaging summer reading titles accessible to all K-12 students before summer vacation. 

This year’s theme is “One World, Many Stories,” which will expose students to some of the most-read children’s books around the world,such as: “I am Malala,” by Malala Yousafzai; “Fiesta,” by Ginger Foglesong Gibson; “Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale” by John Steptoe; “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes,” by Eleanor Coerr; and the “Harry Potter” series, by J.K. Rowling.

  East Orange School District