Summer learning loss

Summer learning loss, also known as summer slide or summer setback, is a term used by educators to describe the perceived loss of retained knowledge that students experience after a long holiday such as summer vacation. Increasingly, studies have shown that summer learning loss is a real problem in school systems with extended breaks, ultimately slowing students’ educational progress. In particular, studies have shown that summer learning loss most acutely affects children in the lowest socio-economic spectrums. Furthermore, declines in mathematics aptitude are greater than in other elementary level content areas, such as reading. Despite resistance from traditionalists who favor retaining summer vacations as part of the school calendar, some educators are seeking to shorten school vacations to limit the damage from summer learning loss.

Brief History

Summer learning loss is believed to be the result of school schedules that include a months-long summer vacation. This vacation is traditionally included as part of the American and Canadian educational systems. In these countries, the average scholastic year consists of 180 school days. The establishment of summer vacation was a concession made for urban children in the eighteenth century. At that time, the United States used school schedules that were built around the work habits of its students. Schools were generally open year-round, and children would drop in for classes when they could. In the spring and fall, when rural students would be preoccupied with planting and harvesting crops, attendance was typically lower. As a result, the summer and winter periods were when most students attended these voluntary classes. However, as the economies of the United States and Canada increasingly moved away from a heavily agrarian system, school schedules changed to accommodate the evolving needs of students.

By the nineteenth century, New York City schools were open for 248 days a year. However, in the era before air conditioning, schools in larger cities often sweltered in the summer heat and children found it difficult to concentrate on their studies. As a result, educators noticed that attendance started to decline during the summer months. When the American school system began to standardize school calendars on a national level in the late nineteenth century, they chose to provide a summer vacation in a nod to the growing urbanization of the country. Educators also believed the accepted notion at the time that the brain was a muscle that needed periodic breaks to remain healthy and strong. Financial shortfalls further led to shortened school years that were capped at a minimum of 180 school days in public educational systems.

As early as 1906, researchers began to study the idea of summer learning loss, with resulting examinations indicating that children’s progress suffered as a result of lengthy vacations. This was most noticeable after extended breaks such as a three-month summer vacation. Despite such research and the increasing availability of air conditioning—an invention that ostensibly made summer vacation unnecessary—summer vacation remained a mainstay of the American school year. The continued inclusion of a three-month break was born from a new tradition: summer vacation trips. Families increasingly used this regularly scheduled break to plan trips to beaches, fairs, and out-of-town trips. As greater numbers of Americans found themselves with enough income to support increased leisure activities, the tourism sector exploded. As a result, in the twenty-first century, many states have resisted attempts to reform the school year. This is often due to campaigning by leaders from a tourism sector that relies on children and teenagers for both its client base and its workforce.

Overview

In 1996, a study led by psychology professor Harris Cooper offered quantitative proof of the marked decline in tests scores between the May and September academic periods. Using test results from the 1960s to the 1980s, Cooper’s team demonstrated students lost the equivalent of two months of schooling after a summer vacation, with children from minority groups and lower socio-economic backgrounds demonstrating the highest rates of loss. Subsequent research has provided a more thorough understanding of the impact of summer learning loss between various grades and subjects. These studies have shown varying rates of loss depending on the subject matter and a child’s grade level. For instance, summer learning loss was lowest in kindergarten and first grade, but more prevalent in both higher grades and in the math and sciences. Such studies have also confirmed disparities in education retention between various socio-economic groups.

One commonly cited explanation for this phenomenon is a concept called the “faucet theory.” This idea suggests that children attending the same school have relatively comparable resources available to them during the school year. However, during the summer, students from higher economic backgrounds continue to have access to materials and experiences that allow them to maintain higher rates of educational retention than their peers from resource-poor backgrounds. In other words, these children continue to have a running “faucet” of resources even in the summer months—an advantage that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds lack.

Traditionally, educators have relied on summer school programs to assist students who have struggled during the school year so that they can remain on par with their classmates. Studies of children in such programs have shown better rates of retention, although, again, children from middle- and higher-income backgrounds fared better. Researchers suggest these results may be due to a stronger interactive effect between home resources and in-class learning, or perhaps due to better educational opportunities available to children with more financial resources.

Some educators have suggested altering the school year so that it more closely resembles the year-round systems of colleges. Such a system might offer classes year-round, but with shorter vacations staggered throughout. However, while some school districts have experimented with a year-round model, they often face resistance from parents used to the traditional summer vacation, as well as from politicians who seek to balance the needs of tourist-oriented industries. As a compromise, an increasing number of schools have toyed with home-based education programs during the summer that allow students to continue their educations independently at home at their own speed without the loss of their summer vacation. Schools also offer summer learning camps as well as resources for parents to help them assist their children in continued learning.

Bibliography

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Cooper, Harris. “Summer Learning Loss: The Problem and Some Solutions.” LD Online, www.ldonline.org/article/8057/. Accessed 4 Jan. 2025.

Cooper, Harris, et al. “The Effects of Summer Vacation on Achievement Test Scores: A Narrative and Meta-Analytic Review.” Review of Educational Research, 1 Sept. 1996, journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/00346543066003227/. Accessed 4 Jan. 2025.

De Melker, Saskia, and Sam Weber. “Agrarian Roots? Think Again. Debunking the Myth of Summer Vacation’s Origins.” PBS, 7 Sept. 2014, www.pbs.org/newshour/education/debunking-myth-summer-vacation. Accessed 15 Dec. 2019.

Kohli, Sonali, and Nina Agrawal. “Summer Learning Loss: How Teachers Mobilize When Kids Return to School.” Los Angeles Times, 15 Aug. 2019, www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-15/summer-learning-loss-back-to-school. Accessed 4 Jan. 2025.

Kuhfeld, Megan, and Andrew McEachin. “Summer Learning Loss: What We Know and What We’re Learning.” NWEA, 30 Apr. 2024, www.nwea.org/blog/2024/summer-learning-loss-what-we-know-what-were-learning/. Accessed 4 Jan. 2025.

Quinn, David M., and Morgan Polikoff. “Summer Learning Loss: What Is It, and What Can We Do About It?” Brookings Institute, 14 Sept. 2017, www.brookings.edu/research/summer-learning-loss-what-is-it-and-what-can-we-do-about-it/. Accessed 4 Jan. 2025.

Strauss, Valerie. “‘Summer Learning Loss’ Is a Long-Standing Belief in Education. But Is It Real?” Washington Post, 16 Jul. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/07/16/summer-learning-loss-is-long-standing-belief-education-is-it-real/. Accessed 4 Jan. 2025.

“Tips for Preventing 'Summer Slide.'” Mayo Clinic, 12 July 2023, www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/tips-for-preventing-summer-slide. Accessed 4 Jan. 2025.

Von Hippel, Paul T. “Is Summer Learning Loss Real?” Education Next, vol. 19, no. 4, 2019, www.educationnext.org/is-summer-learning-loss-real-how-i-lost-faith-education-research-results/. Accessed 4 Jan. 2025.