student reading

GDS bucking national education trends

In recent years, some of the most alarming educational data trends have highlighted the phenomenon known as “summer slide” – a trend that shows low-income students experience learning loss over the summer at rates far outpacing their middle-class and upper-class peers.

Through hard work and dedication – and the funding provided by Connor Group associates – the staff at The Greater Dayton School is reversing that tend. The students at GDS, Ohio’s first private non-religious school for under-resourced children, experience summer learning loss at almost a third of the national average for low-income students.

The school was founded by The Connor Group Kids & Community Partners.

“After our first summer, our staff realized we hadn’t done enough for our students,” said K&C director Ryan Ernst. “So they came up with a solution – a shorter summer break, more enrichment, more interventions, more targeted strategies. We still have a long way to go, our results from this summer show what’s possible when super talented educators remain student-centered and student-focused in everything they do.”

Now in its third year, GDS’s revolutionary educational model has proven it can take students from the 10th percentile to the 76th percentile in a single year. GDS students show growth in reading and math at twice the national average, regardless of income level.

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