With the coronavirus (COVID-19) forcing several students to stay home from school, Major League Baseball is providing an early offering of its summer learning program.
On Wednesday, MLB and its official education partner, EVERFI, announced that they are making the widespread availability of the “Summer Slugger” digital education platform in an effort to assist some of the 39 million students currently learning at home in the United States and Canada. The program can be accessed by parents, legal guardians and teachers at SummerSlugger.com.
Originally launched in 2017 to address learning loss during the months of summer vacation, Summer Slugger is a free baseball-themed and gamified education course focusing on math and literacy skills. In the years since, MLB Clubs have introduced more than 140,000 young people in the U.S. and Canada (ages 8-11) to the program, with thousands more accessing the platform at home.
In a press release, EVERFI said that it will work closely with MLB Clubs on the direct-to-fan and school & community engagement for Summer Slugger. In an effort to spread awareness of the program's availability, each MLB team will have access to their own co-branded course, a special toolkit with creative logos, promotional content and other assets.
“One constant that remains unchanged amid the current evolving situation is our commitment to promoting student academic achievement and positive outcomes,” Melanie LeGrande, Vice President of Social Responsibility, Major League Baseball, said in a press release. “MLB and our Clubs are proud to assist the millions of parents and school teachers in helping our young people succeed during these challenging circumstances.”
“Our core mission has always been about making education available to students and during this time of crisis we are pleased that so many of our partners have stepped up to the plate to open up their programs to the millions of students and families who are navigating this new learn at home experience,” said Jon Chapman, Founder and President, EVERFI. “This is an extraordinary time for teachers and students and we applaud MLB for ensuring that students continue to receive critical math and literacy skills education in a highly engaging format.”
Topics covered in the 36 Summer Slugger series include units of measure, place value, arithmetic, geometry, spelling, phonemic awareness, vocabulary and comprehension. Each series is designed to take no longer than 10 minutes to complete.