Media Advisory

Though the groundhog just saw his shadow, summer is already on the minds of the educators gathering in Baltimore next month to discuss the prevention of "summer slide" — students' loss of school-year skills during summer break. Education reporters are welcome to get a jump on their summer school stories by attending Summer Learning For All: Programs, Policy, and Research, a national conference hosted by the Center for Summer Learning at the Johns Hopkins University. The event will offer 30 concurrent workshops featuring summer learning models and programs, ways to secure support from local, state and federal sources for summer programs, and presentations of research on the topic of summer learning loss. Speakers will include Sharon Robinson, vice president of educational programming for Major League Baseball and author of Jackie's Nine: Jackie Robinson's Values to Live By, a book about her father; Carla Hayden, president of American Library Association and director of Enoch Pratt Free Library; Carol H. Rasco, president and CEO of Reading is Fundamental; Karl Alexander, professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University; Terry Peterson, director of the National Network for Afterschool and Community Learning; Ronald Ferguson, lecturer in public policy at Harvard University; and Jane Quinn, assistant executive director for community schools, Children's Aid Society. Information about the conference is online at www.summerlearning.org/about/confere nce.html. If you wish to cover this event, call Amy Cowles at 443-287-9960.