Preventing the Summer Slide

1420 Words3 Pages

During Summer break children can enjoy more unstructured time and families can go on vacations. Summer seems to be a large block of time that parents and kids can use to take a breather...But, there is a shadow that often hovers over this lengthy break - a shadow commonly called the summer slide.

Summer Slide: Is It Real?
Despite the playground-like image that the word slide suggests, summer slide refers to a student's loss of academic skills and knowledge during the summer months.[1] The research on this very real phenomenon dates back over 100 years, and confirms that differences in elementary school children’s summer learning experiences “…can impact whether that child ultimately earns a high school diploma and continues on to college"[2]

Summer Slide has Serious Consequences
According to a report from the National Summer Learning Association, it’s common practice for teachers to dedicate at least one month to re-teaching material students have forgotten over the summer[3]. Reviewing material is one thing; completely re-teaching it is quite another. Instead of continuing the educational momentum of the previous school year, teachers and students lose at least four weeks of valuable instruction time in order to relearn the same material, but beyond this - summer slide can affect students on an individual level.

Over time the negative consequences for students who repeatedly experience summer slide accumulate. According to sociologists Karl Alexander and Doris Entwisle this is a primary driver behind the expanding achievement gaps between students of lower and higher socioeconomic levels[4]. This finding was confirmed in another comprehensive analysis published by the RAND Corporation, McCombs, and colleagues in 2011, which st...

... middle of paper ...

...ducation.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Journals/spring2010/why-summer-learning/.
3. http://www.rif.org/us/literacy-resources/articles/keeping-kids-off-the-summer-slide.htm
4. http://www.rif.org/us/literacy-resources/articles/keeping-kids-off-the-summer-slide.htm
5. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec11/vol69/num04/Slowing-the-Summer-Slide.aspx
6. http://www.summerlearning.org/?page=know_the_facts
7. http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Journals/spring2010/why-summer-learning/
8. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120425094358.htm
9. http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Neurosciences/articles/The%20Brain...Use%20it%20or%20Lose%20It/
10. http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.summerlearning.org/resource/collection/CB94AEC5-9C97-496F-B230-1BECDFC2DF8B/Research_Brief_03_-_Kim.pdf
11. https://www.berksarl.org/programs/book-buddies/

Open Document