Over the last 15 years of running our various summer programs, we have received a lot of feedback from client families that their children ‘hit the ground running’ when they head back to school in the late summer and fall. Recently I’ve also been reading a lot on this subject, and doing some research from the current literature on the issue of ‘summer learning loss.’ Here is some of what I recently found that I thought you might find interesting:
In 1996, in a synthesis of 39 separate studies, researchers found that the average student, returning to school in September has lost the equivalent of 1.0 to 2.6 months of previous learning—in effect, erasing this amount of learning from their mind. According to the report, the biggest losses occur in the areas of spelling and computational math (multiplication, addition, etc.). The good news for both parents and students is [by having a summer learning plan and acting on it] that this “academic atrophy” can be reduced and even eliminated.
- Rob Stringer, Educational and Parenting Consultant, July 15, 2005All students experience learning losses when they do not engage in educational activities during the summer. A majority of students (56 percent) want to be involved in a summer program that ‘helps kids keep up with schoolwork or prepare for the next grade’. On average, students lose approximately 2.6 months of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills during the summer months. Only about 10 percent of students nationwide participate in summer school or attend schools with non-traditional calendars.
- Dr. Ruth A. Peters, a clinical psychologist and regular contributor to the ‘Today’ show, June 21, 2005 (statistics provided by Johns Hopkins Center for Summer Learning)
Perhaps most interesting of all, the research on summer learning loss strongly indicates that the effects of this learning loss can be lasting, and seriously detrimental to a student’s lifetime achievement:
We find that cumulative achievement gains over the first nine years of children’s schooling mainly reflect school-year learning, whereas the high SES–low SES achievement gap at 9th grade mainly traces to differential summer learning over the elementary years. These early out-of-school summer learning differences, in turn, substantially account for achievement-related differences by family SES in high school track placements (college preparatory or not), high school noncompletion, and four-year college attendance.
- “Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap”; Alexander, Entwisle, and Olson, Johns Hopkins University; American Sociological Review, April, 2007
The bottom line, I think, is that the efforts students make over the summer have a lasting, positive effect on achievement. With our academic focus and specialized instruction in subjects such as public speaking, college admissions, writing and critical thinking, our programs can be a centerpiece of any parent’s strategy to combat summer learning loss.