Bloomberg Philanthropies announces support for 2023 Indy Summer Learning Labs, an initiative of The Mind Trust and United Way of Central Indiana

Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Mind Trust, and United Way of Central Indiana today announced that Indy Summer Learning Labs (ISLL) will operate again in 2023 and receive additional support from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Summer Boost, a summer learning program for public charter school students. ISLL helped inspire Summer Boost, which is expanding from New York City to seven additional cities, including Indianapolis, in 2023. 

The five-week ISLL program will run from June 12 to July 14, 2023, and will be open to all Marion County students who will be entering first through ninth grade in the fall. The program focuses on serving students who may not normally have access to high-quality summer programming. The Labs are held at schools and community centers in Marion County. 

Bloomberg Philanthropies will work with The Mind Trust and United Way of Central Indiana to provide financial support for charter school students enrolled in Indy Summer Learning Labs. Additionally, Indianapolis public charter schools that are not participating in Indy Summer Learning Labs and are serving rising first through ninth graders in fall 2023 are eligible to apply for summer program funding through Summer Boost to help their students who are most in need of assistance.

“The Mind Trust is thrilled to join United Way of Central Indiana in offering a third year of fun, high-quality summer programming through Indy Summer Learning Labs. We are also honored for ISLL to be part of the national expansion of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ successful Summer Boost program,” said Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust. “Our teams are incredibly proud of the past two years of academic learning gains driven by ISLL and look forward to expanding the program’s reach in partnership with schools and community organizations in summer 2023.”

“Bringing back Indy Summer Learning Labs for a third year is a no-brainer. The data shows that the learning labs work, and students are seeing academic gains,” said Fred Payne, president and CEO of United Way of Central Indiana. “We look forward to partnering once again with The Mind Trust — and partnering with Bloomberg Philanthropies on Summer Boost.”

“Students across America continue to suffer from extreme levels of learning loss caused by the pandemic, and the best opportunity we have to help them catch up is during the summer months,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and the 108^th mayor of New York City. “Robust summer instruction helped thousands of New York City children get back on track last year, so this year we’re expanding the program to seven more cities, including Indianapolis — and we hope other cities and districts will expand their own programs. The country won’t be able to put the pandemic behind us until we put learning loss front and center.”

2023 ISLL site application now open

Schools and community-based organizations located in Marion County may apply to be an ISLL site location. All sites are provided with a math and English/language arts curriculum created by Lavinia Group that is aligned with Indiana state standards, as well as teacher training and other resources to successfully administer the program. 

All ISLL sites will offer in-person instruction and fun enrichment activities to students. The Mind Trust and United Way of Central Indiana will also support community-based sites by hiring teachers, who will be paid up to $10,000, and teacher aides, who will make $25 per hour. The teacher and teacher aid applications will be available in March. 

Interested sites can apply at indysummerlearninglabs.com. The deadline to apply is March 22, 2023. Questions about the application or the ISLL program can be directed to Jenny Cloncs at indysummerlearning@gmail.com. 

Student enrollment for summer 2023 will open in April. Families will be able to find site locations, hours and contact information on indysummerlearninglabs.com. When enrollment opens, families will enroll directly with the site that works best for them. 

About Summer Boost

Indy Summer Learning Labs’ mission and model helped inspire Bloomberg Philanthropies to launch Summer Boost in the summer of 2022 in New York City. In the program’s first year, 16,383 students from 224 New York City public charter schools participated. Pre- and post-assessments show increased student proficiency in both English/language arts and math. The percentage of students who met standards in math nearly doubled – and in English, it more than doubled. At the same time, the share of students scoring below even the most basic levels of proficiency dropped nearly in half. By the end of the summer session, far more students had caught up to roughly where they needed to be to start the new school year and get back on track for success.

• In English/language arts, there was an 18 percentage point increase in students scoring ‘proficient.’  
• In math, there was a 19 percentage point increase in students scoring ‘proficient.’ 

​​In the summer of 2023, based on the program’s 2022 success, Summer Boost will again be run in New York City and will expand to: Indianapolis; Baltimore, MD; Birmingham, AL; Memphis, TN; Nashville, TN; San Antonio, TX; and Washington, D.C.

ISLL participants see math and reading learning gains

In 2022, Indy Summer Learning Labs served 5,000 Marion County students at 39 schools and community learning centers. Students who participated in 2021 and 2022 saw double-digit learning gains in math and reading as measured by an assessment taken at the start and end of the program. Notable program results from 2022 include: 

• A 25 percentage point increase in basic and proficient scores for English/language arts
• A 24 percentage point increase in basic and proficient scores for math
• A 15 percentage point increase in overall English and math scores
• 93% of participating families surveyed rated their experience as good or great

Additionally, the Indiana Department of Education commissioned an external study that found learning lab students achieved statistically significant gains above their pre-pandemic rates of learning and did better than their peers who did not participate in the program.