Newsletter: Summer 2012 - How To Prevent The "Summer Slide"
To a child’s ears, the phrase “summer vacation” is synonymous with freedom. They look forward to months of relaxing, sleeping in, and not thinking about school until it’s time to restock pencil boxes again in September. To many educators, however, “summer vacation” is synonymous with “summer slide.” Alas, this isn’t a water park attraction; the summer slide, also called summer learning loss, is a phenomenon in which students lose several weeks’ or even months’ worth of knowledge and skills during summer vacation, skills that they worked throughout the academic year to build. In a recent meta-analysis of research published on the subject, the College Board reports that 39 studies revealed significant loss of student knowledge and skills over the summer. Further, the severity of the learning loss was correlated with family income: less affluent families, whose children are more likely to spend their summer surfing channels or the Internet than enrolled in summer enrichment programs, return to school in fall even farther behind than their wealthier peers.
The problem is worth consideration, as worried economists have been making dismal projections about current declines in school performance hampering future national productivity. Students in the United States enjoy one of the longest summer vacations in the word, harking back to the days when so many children were pulled from school to help work family farms that schools simply closed during the summer months. The average summer vacation in the United States lasts ten weeks, which is generous compared with eight weeks in Austria, seven in Singapore, and only six in Germany, Japan, and South Korea. Longer summers mean longer slides and more profound loss of academic skills. Luckily, innovative educators are proving that, despite our long summer holidays, our country is not doomed.
Take the Appalachian town of Corbin, Kentucky. Without a YMCA or any kids’ clubs or summer programs, students there used to be hit hard by the summer slide. According to Time magazine, however, Corbin’s Redhound Enrichment program stopped the decline in its tracks. Today, Redhound provides students with a variety of enriching experiences that not only halts the summer slide but reverses it. After a single summer of participating in Redhound, students improved by a full letter grade or more in both reading and math when school resumed in September. The secret, according to program coordinator Karen West, is providing opportunities for students to use academic skills without making academia the whole focus of an activity. For example, after a lesson on conservation led by the state’s department of fish and wildlife, the students went on a fishing trip and competed to catch the largest fish. To win, each child had to weigh and measure his or her catch, sneaking in what would serve as a whole math lesson in school. Similarly, programs in Indianapolis take children on a virtual trip around the world, stopping in various countries along the way. While learning about Italy, for example, activities included publishing a newspaper about the country (targets writing skills and higher thinking) and cooking Italian food from a recipe (targets planning, reading and math skills, and sequencing skills). Willis Bright, a representative of the philanthropic Lilly Endowment, which donates funding to summer programs in Indianapolis, points out that physics can be taught with basketball. And it probably should be, too.
The problem is worth consideration, as worried economists have been making dismal projections about current declines in school performance hampering future national productivity. Students in the United States enjoy one of the longest summer vacations in the word, harking back to the days when so many children were pulled from school to help work family farms that schools simply closed during the summer months. The average summer vacation in the United States lasts ten weeks, which is generous compared with eight weeks in Austria, seven in Singapore, and only six in Germany, Japan, and South Korea. Longer summers mean longer slides and more profound loss of academic skills. Luckily, innovative educators are proving that, despite our long summer holidays, our country is not doomed.
Take the Appalachian town of Corbin, Kentucky. Without a YMCA or any kids’ clubs or summer programs, students there used to be hit hard by the summer slide. According to Time magazine, however, Corbin’s Redhound Enrichment program stopped the decline in its tracks. Today, Redhound provides students with a variety of enriching experiences that not only halts the summer slide but reverses it. After a single summer of participating in Redhound, students improved by a full letter grade or more in both reading and math when school resumed in September. The secret, according to program coordinator Karen West, is providing opportunities for students to use academic skills without making academia the whole focus of an activity. For example, after a lesson on conservation led by the state’s department of fish and wildlife, the students went on a fishing trip and competed to catch the largest fish. To win, each child had to weigh and measure his or her catch, sneaking in what would serve as a whole math lesson in school. Similarly, programs in Indianapolis take children on a virtual trip around the world, stopping in various countries along the way. While learning about Italy, for example, activities included publishing a newspaper about the country (targets writing skills and higher thinking) and cooking Italian food from a recipe (targets planning, reading and math skills, and sequencing skills). Willis Bright, a representative of the philanthropic Lilly Endowment, which donates funding to summer programs in Indianapolis, points out that physics can be taught with basketball. And it probably should be, too.
"Summer learning is critical, but it needs to be fun, too."
The message of these successful programs is clear: Summer learning is critical, but it needs to be fun, too. Students dread being sentenced to summer school, where they must make up for a failed course by sitting through the curriculum again for hours each day. Engagement and motivation levels drop, and so does learning. To prevent students from returning to school with a deficit of skills and knowledge, and perhaps even provide them with a surplus, summer programs must be appealing to students. Kids’ drive to explore new activities and ideas should be motivated by genuine interest.
Children who face specific learning challenges are especially prone to summer learning loss, and would benefit from more rigorous remediation programs over the summer. For example, hard-won gains in reading skills for a dyslexic student are in serious peril if they are not maintained over the summer, and it might be devastating to a child to have to start all over again when school resumes. Still, it seems the best approach is a balanced one, and parents whose children require intensive work over the summer should note that research continues to support the importance of play and unstructured time in child development, regardless of the age of the child. According to a recent article in the journal Pediatrics, free time for play or other self-chosen activities “enhances children’s learning readiness, learning behaviors, and problem solving skills.” Further, play seems to increase children’s capacity to store new information in memory. So, for optimum learning results, critical tutoring should be interspersed with opportunities for children to engage in imaginative, creative, and self-determined activities. Screen time generally provides poor learning opportunities, and parents would do best to limit their children’s television and computer use, even during the summer. (One summer program in Indianapolis, however, took students to watch the movie Toy Story, then used the movie’s slogan “to infinity and beyond” to launch a week-long unit that allowed students to delve into astronomy and space exploration. So perhaps screen time done right can be productive after all.)
The two competing philosophies about how best to spend summer – by fending off learning loss or providing children with much-needed free time – may appear to be at odds with each other. But like so many debates, a compromise seems to be the most productive and beneficial answer.
Children who face specific learning challenges are especially prone to summer learning loss, and would benefit from more rigorous remediation programs over the summer. For example, hard-won gains in reading skills for a dyslexic student are in serious peril if they are not maintained over the summer, and it might be devastating to a child to have to start all over again when school resumes. Still, it seems the best approach is a balanced one, and parents whose children require intensive work over the summer should note that research continues to support the importance of play and unstructured time in child development, regardless of the age of the child. According to a recent article in the journal Pediatrics, free time for play or other self-chosen activities “enhances children’s learning readiness, learning behaviors, and problem solving skills.” Further, play seems to increase children’s capacity to store new information in memory. So, for optimum learning results, critical tutoring should be interspersed with opportunities for children to engage in imaginative, creative, and self-determined activities. Screen time generally provides poor learning opportunities, and parents would do best to limit their children’s television and computer use, even during the summer. (One summer program in Indianapolis, however, took students to watch the movie Toy Story, then used the movie’s slogan “to infinity and beyond” to launch a week-long unit that allowed students to delve into astronomy and space exploration. So perhaps screen time done right can be productive after all.)
The two competing philosophies about how best to spend summer – by fending off learning loss or providing children with much-needed free time – may appear to be at odds with each other. But like so many debates, a compromise seems to be the most productive and beneficial answer.