Cost

1. What is our financial obligation? 

a) The NSSI is a non-profit organization and is supported by philanthropy. We provide the curriculum and training for teachers and coaches. The vast majority of that is subsidized by philanthropic contributions but we ask for a small per-student fee of $50 per student to participate. 

b) This fee does not include, and partner schools are responsible for:

• Paying for your partner teachers. This will likely range based on how you stipend teachers for summer work. You decide based on your salaries and stipend rates what the amount will be. 

- We recommend using this Cost Calculator as a resource to see how much the summer might cost you

• Providing access to technology. You are responsible for ensuring your students have hardware (Chromebooks or laptop) and Wi-Fi available, as well as ensuring teachers and administrators have access to necessary technology to support learning.

• Providing books for students. Our novels for Summer 2021 will be confirmed in early March 2021, and we are committed to ensuring we find books that are reasonably priced and available on amazon e books, sora, and hard copy. 

Program (Length of day, Content, Schedule, Assessment)

2. Tell us more about how content will be delivered and how time zones will work. What will be synchronous vs. asynchronous? 

a) The suggested schedule is for a morning block of NSSI for all time zones. The only portions that are synchronous will be the first full week of teacher training and the 2x a week PD. This will allow the balance of synchronous and asynchronous learning to work well across the time zones. 

b) You can also review our Academic Calendar here!

3. Can we choose grade levels to participate? Can we do part of this but not all? We are thinking about a shorter program.

a) You are welcome to opt in to the grade levels that are best aligned to your school community and your communities needs.  We ask that all participants plan to participate for the full five weeks of the program.  

4. How will student groupings and ratios work? Will students be mixed across schools? What are the ratios of mentor teachers to students? 

a) We recommend 20-30 students per section with a maximum section size of 40. Students would be split into two groups of 20-30 students each, and the literature teacher and math teacher would each teach two classes to each group.

b) Therefore, we recommend schools need to provide one reading and one math teacher for every 40-60 students.

c) It is up to your network discretion (if a network of schools) to decide if they would like to mix classrooms of students across different campuses within their network.

5. Can we have a "combo" class of 3rd and 4th graders together for Literature and Math? Or do you recommend keeping grade groupings separate? 

a) We advise keeping grade groupings separate for both Math and Literature; however, this is ultimately up to you since you know your students best. It would be difficult to do a combo class for Math as the curriculum is different for each grade. However, our literature curriculum could work for a mixed class of 3rd and 4th, 5th and 6th, or 7th and 8th since the curriculum is the same in those grades. Our curriculum works best when classes are mixed academically so that students can all learn from one another - so we advise against grouping students into sections such as "remedial" or "on/above grade level". 

6. How long is the day? For teachers? For students? 

a) The student day will be about three hours and forty five minutes; the teacher day will extend for an additional 30 minutes for preparation daily and a synchronous 60 minute PD twice a week.