If a Classroom Falls in a Forest

An article in today's New York Times, "Facing Deficits, Some States Cut Summer School," portrays a grim picture of how many school districts are cutting summer school programs despite federal monies designed to keep the K-12 educational system running for full-year sessions.

I am on the advisory board of SOS Classroom, which attempts to ameliorate the crisis. You can also follow their Twitter feed to learn about how they offer tools for tagging and organizing free educational content on the web that addresses state content standards.

When Summer School was canceled for LAUSD in the summer of 2009, there was an outpouring of concern for students in the country’s largest school district.

At the same time, we realized that the Internet was making available an unprecedented number of free educational resources. They just needed to be collected in one place.

Our goal is to collect and organize the very best of these resources by enlisting the help of educators, parents, and students online. We offer these resources as a life preserver to students who might otherwise spend their summers sinking.

The students of Mark Marino at USC hope that they have reached critical mass and that parents and educators will soon be active content-creators to the site.