Summer Learning Loss

Summer break is supposed to be a time of rest and rejuvenation for students. After nine months of hard work and challenging classes, one would think such a long break could do nothing but good for students; however, this is not the best way for young minds to learn. A three month break is far too long for children to go without proper education and supervision. Instead of a long three month break at the end of each school year, why not give students the same number of days off but spread them out more frequently throughout the year? Year-round education is a more efficient, globally competitive, and fair alternative to the traditional nine month school year.

A large portion of the knowledge gained during the last school year is lost over the long idle months and must be retaught for weeks, which wastes a lot of time that could be spent learning new material. This puts students behind in that year’s curriculum, and over many summers, can add up to students being months or years behind where they would be if no learning was lost. There is a solution to this

Some advantages of year-round schooling include improved achievement, improved attendance by both teachers and students, reduced discipline problems, lower teacher stress, increased motivation due to frequent breaks, and increased opportunities for enrichment (Palmer and Bemis). During the two week breaks in between school sessions, students have the opportunity to take classes on karate, ballet, photography, cooking, and swimming. This intersession provides time for hands-on, big project classes that get kids involved in topics that interest them. Intersession can also be used as an intervention for students who are falling behind. “Karl Alexander, sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University, studied 800 students for more than 20 years in Baltimore’s elementary schools. He found that by ninth grade, low-income students had fallen 3 ½ grade levels behind their middle-class peers. And most of that gap was attributable to learning lost over the long traditional summer” (Schulte, 2009). The biggest driving force and proponent of year-round schooling is the effect of the “summer slide.” Students lose two months of achievement in math skills and students from low-income families lose more than two months in reading achievement according to the national Summer Learning

“The U.S. research challenges one of the main arguments for abandoning conventional schedules: year- round schooling improves achievement because it prevents students from falling behind during the summer and because it does not waste precious time reviewing past years’ lessons”

Year-round schooling is characterized by its 45-90 day periods of instruction (varying with different multitrack systems) separated by 15-30 day breaks (varying with different multitrack systems) (California Department of Education). There is no current scientific evidence to show that year-round education lessens the amount of material forgotten during the summer (McMillen 68); in fact, this memory loss is maximized as it occurs more frequently as it accompanies the shorter, habitual breaks. Constant breaks can also multiply some of summer’s negative effects. One common issue associated with summer is students’ loss of focus as summer approaches and trouble becoming accustomed to the beginning of the following school year (Worsnop 439). This would be a, though minimized, a recurring difficulty with constant breaks. Furthermore, teachers

Year round school eliminates regression of learning due to extended time off. Having a year round school can reduce what people known as summer learning loss ("The Pros"). Almost every child will experience a decrease in their math over the time of summer break each summer break ("SUMMER LEARNING"). “On an average students lose two months of reading skills over summer” ("SUMMER LEARNING"). After

Year-round schooling is beneficial to school systems because: it alleviates overcrowding, offers remedial opportunities, decreases teacher burnout, increases retention rates, assists English as a Second Language

According to a article called “Should schools be year-round? Some students say goodbye to long summer breaks. (News Debate)”, one of the positive effects of year round schooling is that it can help with learning loss. Some of the negative effects I learned about are that year round schooling can make it hard to do sports, I also learned that year round schooling can make a hard, busy schedule for parents. Some of the examples I learned about when researching the topic year round schooling is that Park Elementary School started encouraging other schools to have year round schooling in the 1960’s.

“More kids will have learning loss than others.” That is why we have school so we can learn the same stuff. We will get learning loss because we will learn to much stuff.When kids go to summer break they will have learning loss but they will learn that stuff again in the next year. When kids have all the vacations they might as well just have a summer break.(EDU leadership removing school year round schooling.) “We found that students in year- round schools learn more during the summer, when others are on vacation, but they seem to learn less than others children during the rest of the year,”.(Von Hippel 2007)

To start with, students don't have to relearn everything they learned before the summer break. According to Year Round School, “Also, students won't have to relearn what they forgot over the summer since they would only be out of school for three weeks at a time.” To clarify, students are out for less time, thus they will remember more of what they learned.

As of 2014, over 3000 schools in the United States are year-round. Instead of having one longer summer break, these schools take several shorter breaks throughout the year (Scholastic 15). With so many advantages and very few disadvantages of year-round schooling, it is not surprising that these schools chose to exchange their excessively long summer breaks for shorter, more frequent breaks. Not only can year-round schooling improve the academic performance of students, but it can also economically benefit all aspects of society. Schools should adopt a year-round calendar, causing one to question the perils of year-round schooling.

Besides, studies have shown that kids lose knowledge that they just learned from the previous year during the summer. For example, on paragraph 7, in the article “Vacation Just as Important as School” it said that, “The gist is that in summer kids forget whatever they just have learned.” Proving that kids need year round schooling so the information they learned can stay with them for the following years. Also, in the article “A Lesson in the Value of Summer”, paragraph 19, they said that, “Increasing summer school may be a good educational policy for raising standardized test scores.” Making a point that having education year round will make sure you grades stay up.

According to Matthew Lynch, students will remember what they learn instead of the majority of students forgetting everything during summer break. It takes from 8 to 13 weeks for teachers to get back up to speed. Either way, when it comes to learning and retention, students who attend year-round schools have nothing to lose and much to gain. It’s also an easy way to bridge the achievement gap. Minority students, students who speak English as a second language, economically disadvantaged students, and students with disabilities are the most affected by the summer fallback. Lynch explains, “Studies have found that disadvantaged students lose about 27 percent more of their learning gains in the summer months than their peers”

Educational research shows that students forget a lot of what they learned in school over the long summer break, so teachers must spend the beginning of the next school year reviewing this information instead of teaching new lessons (Ballinger and Kneese 2). Students could learn significantly more material in school with a year-round schedule because they would remember more of the previous information they have learned. Many failing schools have a large proportion of students from disadvantaged homes, and these students are more prone to summer learning loss (3). Since this loss accumulates each year, these students become so far behind their peers that they decide to drop out (3). According to a study in the American Sociological Review, the information that students from low-income families lose over summer breaks accumulates and "contributes to the perpetuation of family advantage and disadvantage across generations" (“Leave” 1). By changing to a year-round calendar, les students from low-income households will drop out of school, which helps to break the poverty cycle. Also, year-round schooling makes it easier to learn a second language because this skill requires daily or frequent practice (Ballinger and Kneese 4). Since students have shorter breaks from learning with a year-round schedule, they will be able to master a new language more efficiently. Every student, even those who tend to struggle in school, will be more likely to succeed with a school schedule that shortens the three-month long summer

"Summer learning loss is a major issue for kids. All children -- no matter their economic level experience a slide in math over the summer months." The slide varies for other subjects. Though it may seem fun, a summer break can often lead to boredom. Year-round school eliminates the need to fill 12 weeks of vacation with activities to keep your child interested and engaged. "If the American summer is not structured, it's almost too long," Lloyd says. "A lot of kids don't have enough to do during the summer they get bored."