Dogwood Principal Brings Books to the Students

It’s called “the summer slide,” and one Reston elementary school has found a new way to try and prevent it.

According to nonprofit Reading is Fundamental, some children can lose as much as three months of reading achievement over the summer.

RIF adds that that loss is cumulative and by fifth grade some at-risk students will be several grade levels behind.

The solution: Keep reading, of course.

Dogwood Elementary School principal Mie Devers recently loaded up the trunk of her Prius and went from neighborhood to neighborhood to pass out books to Dogwood students. Several teachers joined her as they passed out more than 50 books to students at apartment complexes and Southgate Community Center in weekly trips in July.

Books were donated by the school’s partner organizations, said Devers.

Dogwood is a Title I school, which means it has a high number of low-income and English as a Second Language students who are most at risk of falling behind.

“I feel this is a really important thing,” Devers told Reston Now. “Yes, it has to do with academics — we want the kids to come back to us in the fall where they were before. But I also want them to enjoy reading.”

Dogwood is also opening its library on Wednesday afternoons (1:30 to 5:30 p.m.) so students can check out books and enjoy read-aloud time with the school librarian, along with a craft project, said Devers.

Photo: Dogwood students and some of their new books/Credit: FCPS