The Summer Slide

Summer camps.

Swimming.

Lazy afternoons spent playing Legos, reading or drawing.

This is how many of our middle class students will recall the summer break that is now drawing to a close nationwide.

But the reality is that summer didn’t look like this for many of America’s children.

Instead, many children and teens spent the summer languishing on the couch, eating whatever happened to be in the refrigerator and watching whatever happened to be on TV.

In some cases, children were trapped behind closed doors because their neighborhoods are unsafe. In other instances, students simply were uninspired to get off the couch and did not have an adult around to encourage that movement.

The academic implications of such mind-numbing, wasted summers are serious. And this is particularly true for low-income children

According to information compiled by the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Summer Learning, middle-income students typically experience slight gains in reading performance during the summer, while low-income students generally experience a summer learning loss of about two months in reading.

Many students also lose ground in math, dropping more than 2.5 months of grade level equivalency during the summer.

These summer losses are believed to contribute to the achievement gap that exists between low-income students and their more affluent peers. This is because research shows both low-income and middle-income students seem to gain ground at similar rates during the school year, but then low income students post summer learning losses during the elementary years, while middle class children often make moderate gains.

Now that this summer has drawn to a close, what might we, as educational and social justice advocates, do to begin preparing for next summer, so the so-called summer slide is not repeated?

There is some recent evidence that providing books and other educational materials to low-income students might be helpful. How can we work to provide these materials to students? What can you begin planning now, so that next summer will be different?

Would donating to a reputable summer camp that serves low-income students be helpful? What about taking children you know who spend too much time in front of the TV to the zoo, a museum, science center or other brain-boosting place? What role might technology play in actually battling the summer slide? How might local libraries, community centers, churches and others in the community help address the problem?

Who needs to come together to make some of these improvement possible? What is your part? Where do you, as an advocate for educational and social justice, go from here?

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