Summer learning loss

Summer learning loss is the loss of academic skills and knowledge over the course of summer holidays. The loss in learning varies across grade level, subject matter, and family income. A common finding across numerous studies is that on average, students score lower on standardized tests at the end of the summer than they do at the beginning of summer (on the same test). Summer loss for all students is estimated to be equal to about 1 month (Cooper 1996), but this varies across subject matter:

For over a century, scholars have recognized that summer vacation is a period when students’ rate of academic development declines relative to the school year. All children lose academic skills during the summer months, and family socioeconomic status (SES) is highly correlated to the level of academic growth or decline in the summer months. Two-thirds of the academic achievement gap in reading and language found among high school students has been explained through the learning loss that occurs during the summer months of the primary school years.

When formal schooling was first established, the school calendar fit the needs of a particular community. When families became more mobile, the school calendar was standardized. The current 9-month calendar that most schools operate on was established when 85% of Americans (and students) were involved in agriculture, and when climate control did not exist in school buildings. In today's United States, only about 3% of Americans are engaged in agriculture. Also, most schools have air conditioning, making it possible for students to be there in the hotter months. [2]

After-school activities and summer programs can play a role in combatting summer learning loss. Studies have shown that if students are able to participate in organized academic activities during the summer months, they are less likely to experience the losses in academic skills and knowledge before the start of the next school year.

Throughout the 20th century, numerous studies examined general learning loss among all students during the summer months. A meta-analysis of 39 studies conducted since 1978 found that in the absence of school, all students score lower on standardized math tests at the end of the summer as compared to their performance on the same tests at the beginning of summer. This loss was most acute in factual and procedural learning such as mathematical computation, where an average setback of more than two months of grade-level equivalency was observed among both middle- and lower-class students. In reading and language, however, substantial differences were found between middle- and lower-class students. Whereas middle-class students showed a nonsignificant gain in reading scores, lower-class students showed a significant loss that represented a gap of about three months of grade-level equivalent reading skills between middle- and lower-class students.

...
Wikipedia