Baseball-Themed Education Course, That is Available to Families for Free, Will Debut Summer Slugger of the Week and Challenges Featuring Baseball Legends
June 25th, 2021
Originally created as a first-of-its-kind program to address learning loss during summer vacation months through engaging math and literacy retention programs, this year’s baseball-themed Summer Slugger digital education course will debut new programs to bring an added focus on assisting the millions of students affected by school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Parents and students will continue to have free access to the interactive and fun Summer Slugger course at SummerSlugger.com, with two new programs added to its traditional curriculum – “Summer Slugger of the Week” and “Challenges Featuring Baseball Legends.”
- Summer Slugger of the Week: Each week, EVERFI, the provider of the educational content, will recognize a student who has demonstrated significant progress during the course and has demonstrated a positive attitude toward retaining math and literacy concepts through the specially-designed baseball content
- Challenges Featuring Baseball Legends: The Summer Slugger course will also feature special curricula designed to teach students about baseball’s most historic players and their meaningful contributions to the game. Legends featured will include Hall of Famers Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente and Lou Gehrig.
Since the launch of Summer Slugger in June 2017, MLB and its 30 Clubs have introduced nearly 200,000 students in the U.S. and Canada, ages 8-11, to the program, with thousands more accessing the platform at home.
Summer Slugger contains 36 series (designed to take no longer than 10 minutes to complete), which cover the following educational topics: units of measure, place value, arithmetic, geometry, spelling, phonemic awareness, vocabulary and comprehension. The course unlocks activities and offers rewards for progress and consistency along the way. Students engage with content that reinforces key foundational and procedural skills while enjoying the freedom and motivation of a digital baseball activity.
EVERFI will continue to work closely with MLB Clubs on the direct-to-fan, allowing younger fans to join their favorite Club’s customized course, as well as the school and community engagement for the Summer Slugger program. Clubs will have access to their own co-branded course, a special toolkit with creative logos, promotional content and other assets in pursuit of spreading awareness about the program’s availability.
This detrimental impact on math and literacy retention, referred to some experts as the “COVID slide,” is believed to potentially have a compounded effect on younger students who were not in classrooms due to school closures during the 2020-2021 academic year and the summer season when classes are not in session. Learning gains during the 2020-21 school year are expected to be significantly lower than typical years due to the COVID slide, according to a report from research based nonprofit organization NWEA published in Sage Journals. The research also predicts learning gains in literacy to be 63% to 68% of what they normally are on average, while math is expected to be much lower at only 37% to 50% of the average normal school year gains.
About Summer Slugger
Summer Slugger is an evidence-based program that provides students with baseball-themed math and literacy activities aimed to support retention of knowledge during the summer. The digital resource, intended for children ages 8-11, engages students in game-based activities that address the skills necessary to combat the loss of knowledge over the summer. Since 2017, nearly 200,000 students across MLB’s 30 markets participated in Summer Slugger.
About EVERFI, Inc.
EVERFI is an international technology company driving social impact through education to address the most challenging issues affecting society ranging from financial wellness to mental health to workplace conduct and other critical topics. Founded in 2008, EVERFI’s Impact-as-a-Service TM solution and digital educational content have reached more than 41 million learners globally. In 2020, the company was recognized as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company and was featured on Fortune Magazine’s Impact 20 List. The company was also named to the 2021 GSV EdTech 150, a list of the most transformative growth companies in digital learning. Some of America’s leading CEOs and venture capital firms are EVERFI investors including Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Twitter founder Evan Williams, as well as Advance, Rethink Education, Rethink Impact, The Rise Fund, and TPG Growth. To learn more about EVERFI and how you can #answerthecall please visit everfi.comor follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter @EVERFI.
