Guest Post: The Challenges of Summer Learning Loss

In 2015, Spark partnered with a number of organizations including the National Summer Learning Association, for the Expanded Learning Summit.  The gathering focused on how to make expanded learning the new normal for middle school students.  Here, Matthew Boulay, the founder of the National Summer Learning Association, explains “summer learning loss” and shares a few tips for keeping students engaged during the summer months.  Because Spark’s core mentoring program only operates during the school year, it’s helpful for mentors, educators and parents to realize the role they play in keeping students on track.

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Summer learning loss occurs when students disengage from academics throughout June, July and August.  What might seem like a short academic break manifests into challenges for students, teachers and even schools. 

Summer Learning Gap in the Classroom

Teachers play a critical–yet often unrecognized–role in shaping expectations around summer learning. Some researchers describe teachers as “information brokers” who help parents shape their goals for summer learning and also identify resources in their community that can facilitate summer learning.

While summer learning loss may be new to many of us, it is not news to teachers who struggle with the effects at the start of each school year. In a 2013 survey of 500 teachers by the National Summer Learning Association:

• Nearly 66 percent reported needing to devote 3-4 weeks to reviewing or re-teaching the same material at the beginning of the school year that their students had learned the previous spring.
• Another 24 percent reported spending five weeks or more backtracking before deciding it was safe to proceed to new terrain.

This means that during a 40-week academic calendar, teachers have to spend more than 10 percent of it pulling their students back up to where they had been before summer slide.

The Ripple Effect of Summer Learning Loss

In most states and districts, schools have been judged on test scores under the requirements of No Child Left Behind. Because these tests are administered once a year, school year gains are mixed in with summer losses. Take the example of a student who gains 100 points during the school year but then loses 30 points during the summer. If the accountability system requires the student to gain 80 points but the net result after summer learning loss is only 70 points, then the student is categorized as underperforming. If there are too many students in this situation, the school is put on a watch list.

In other words, achievement gains made during the school year by both students and schools are undercut by losses that occur during the summer.

Helping Students Stay Engaged

As with many aspects of education and even childrearing, it takes a village.  Here are some tips for mentors, teachers and parents to keep students engaged during the summer months:

• Explore home and community resources that might be available during the summer.
• Make sure every child has a library card and consider transportation options to and from the local public library.
• Encourage the school’s library to open during the summer months. Even if it is just for a few hours a day once a week, this allows kids to walk to their neighborhood school to get books on a regular basis.
• Many schools subscribe to online learning programs during the school year. Programs like IXL, First in Math, Bedtime Math, RAZ Readers, and many more. These subscriptions are often 12 months long but teachers and parents are frequently unaware that they are available during the summer. Check to see if online learning programs are available during the summer and, if so, make sure students know about it.
• Give reading lists. Some schools have parents sign “Summer Reading Contracts” to commit to supporting summer reading.
• Use data to track summer learning at the school level or more simply with a reading log from their public library to keep track of the time spent reading during the summer.

Matthew Boulay is the founder of the National Summer Learning Association and the author of “Summers Matter: Ten Things Every Parent, Teacher and Principal Needs to Know About June, July, and August.”