SLPQI Highlight: ACES

Submitted by Steve Palmer, ACES (Althletes Committed to Educating Students) 

Participating in the Summer Learning Program Quality Intervention (SLPQI) pilot through Sprockets enabled ACES to integrate greater academic impact and greater engagement for the youth ACES serves through summer and beyond. Specifically, SLPQI data informed revisions to ACES’s new “Sports Math” curriculum, honing in on the incorporation of academic concepts into the engaging sports theme. One result is units such as “Sports Stadium”, in which students design, budget for, and build a model sports stadium using craft materials. Units like this culminate in field trips to places such as the new US Bank Stadium and TCF Bank Stadium, enabling youth to see the ‘real-world’ application of academic concepts.

Abel, who has participated in ACES summer programming for three years, loves soccer. Abel plays on his neighborhood team and roots for MN United and Real Madrid. The ACES Sports Math curriculum lets him connect his passion for the sport with practice of academic concepts all summer long- for a total of 14 extra days of school! Said Abel, "ACES means a lot to me because it helps me with math and reading. I also get to laugh with my friends and cousins."

ACES is an after-school tutoring and mentoring program serving grades 4-8 in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. ACES greatly expanded its summer offerings from 2015 to 2016, adding three summer school sites in Minneapolis for a total of 150 youth served in summer 2016.