Studying During the Summer: Preventing the Summer Slide
August, 15, 2010
In a recent MPR broadcast, the audience discussed the implications of a research project by Johns Hopkins sociology Professor Karl Alexander concerning the importance of eliminating the summer gap and finding a way to increase the school year so that students can practice math, science and reading year round. This would prevent students from suffering from the :summer slide” or losing a substantial portion of what they had learned during the previous school year, having then to be re-taught this material the first weeks of the following school year.,
The study argues that the “summer slide” accounts for two thirds of the achievement gap forninth grade students as the disadvantaged students are not continuing to study or have enriching experiences during the summer equivalent to their more advantaged classmates from elementary school until ninth grade. While statistics show that students improve at the same rate as their peers during the school year independent of the students’ background, a gap develops during the summer months. Better off children appeared to take greater advantage of public services such as libraries, parks, as well as taking more books home than at-risk students. Johns Hopkins University has written extensively on this topic, having started the study in 1982 when it began to follow 800 students throughout their academic careers. Yet, despite their conclusive findings, it is much more difficult to successfully implement a solution.
During the current recession, schools have been faced at times with difficult decisions such as whether to drop subjects, fire teachers, drop afterschool and summer programs, or even reduce the school week from five week days to four days (a Monday through Thursday week), as has been the case in some areas of Hawaii, California, and is being considered in a number of other locations. Faced with the current economic climate, how then will the state meet the goals of increasing access, quality, and effectiveness of education? Some districts in Minnesota also discussed possibly shortening the school week to four days in some locales. Facing these issues, how will America meet the goals of having 60% of its students graduate from college by 2020 and once again lead the world in graduation rates? (the USA is currently ranked 12 in graduation rates according to a College Board study of 36 countries).*
However, according to a recent article by Education Innovating (8/11/2010), maybe the situation is not as dire as it first appears. While the cuts decrease the productivity of education, the article argues that some of these changes may, in certain cases, not be highly detrimental and, in addition, may be providing a space for innovation to flourish as parents search for alternatives. New spaces and online learning options have allowed some communities to provide their children with an alternative to the traditional educational system and a space for students to explore and continue their education in other fields.
Yet, various well respected and helpful education programs have recently been cut in Minnesota and elsewhere. Programs such as TRIO, other government run programs and non-profits are increasingly competing for scarce funds and many of these programs are the ones that focus on decreasing the achievement gap. In the end, hopefully innovation will triumph, some web 2.0 technologies are promising in their innovative approach and cost decreasing ability, yet it will also take community involvement and a concerted effort to ensure that every student has the opportunity to develop their talents regardless of their social class.
* – Research in Brief: Summer Can Set Kids on the Right or Wrong Course http://www.summerlearning.org/resource/collection/CB94AEC5-9C97-496F-B230-1BECDFC2DF8B/Research_Brief_02_-_Alexander.pdf
* – Obama aims to lift college graduation rates, but his tools are few http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/0809/Obama-aims-to-lift-college-graduation-rates-but-his-tools-are-few
* – The big payoff of the four-day school week: Unplanned innovation? http://www.educationinnovating.org/2010/08/big-payoff-of-four-day-school-week-unplanned-innovation A family enjoying a trip to a Minnesota Zoo – Photo taken from Flickr under Creative Commons license – attributed to acopperpenny
