For most kids, summertime means swimming, sports and sun. But for 18,000 students around the country, the summer months will also be filled with algebra, angles, and arithmetic.
Yes, math.
Mathnasium is anticipating its largest summer enrollment ever this year, with 18,000 students ranging from elementary level to high school expected to take math classes at its franchise locations across the country. The reason? Many students - and their parents - are looking to prevent the notorious summer slide, during which kids lose math concepts and skills developed during the prior school year.
"Much like the muscles athletes use in competition, a student's math muscles have to be exercised to remain in top form. Research has shown that during the summer months, students literally lose up to 2½ months of computational math skills developed during the year. However, 18,000 students across the nation have decided to fight the summer slide this year and work out their math muscles at Mathnasium. When school starts again in the fall, they'll be well ahead of the game," said Larry Martinek, Chief Instructional Officer at Mathnasium.
Summer math students typically spend two to three hours a week at their local Mathnasium franchise locations, working from a customized curriculum designed to mesh with their skill levels and needs. The sessions include specially developed math workouts and math games sessions designed to both motivate and educate.
The sizable enrollment in the Mathnasium summer classes demonstrates the importance of math skills to many areas of academic achievement at all educational levels, as standardized math testing is often used to determine advancement, class selection, and placement. Importantly, summer math at Mathnasium is equally applicable to students who need to address deficiencies in their math repertoire as well as those who wish to progress further than their normal classwork allows.
"I'm expecting about 70 students to sign up for summer math this year, which equals nearly half of our enrollment during the academic year. These students are committed to math for a variety of reasons, with some looking to fill gaps and others wanting to take advantage of the summertime to move ahead. One thing they all have in common is the desire to have a little fun but at the same time be challenged, and that's something I hope all our students come to understand. Math can be both fun and exciting - and it's something that everyone can learn," said Alan Flyer, Owner of the Mathnasium franchise in Roslyn, N.Y.
Mathnasium's summer math programs are being offered at Mathnasium's more than 400 franchise locations across the U.S. and abroad.
