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(CNN) -- Though they may have left
their textbooks behind when school ended, kids at Harlem RBI, a
youth development program in East Harlem, New York, have no plans
to leave behind what they have learned over the past nine
months.
During the summer months, Harlem RBI combines an intensive
reading and literacy program with baseball and softball. Kids are
in teams both in the classroom and on the field. They are learning
teamwork and academic skills, and they are scoring runs by reading
books and engaging in intensive literacy instruction.
This is just one example of ways that communities across the
country are trying to combat a phenomenon called "summer learning
loss." This loss of learning over the summer can mean an academic
setback for some children that will take weeks, and in some cases
months, to remedy in the fall.
"One hundred years of research confirms that all young people
are at risk of losing ground academically over the summer months,"
says Ron Fairchild, Executive Director of the Center for Summer
Learning at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.
According to Dr. Harris Cooper, Professor of Psychology at Duke
University and the director of the program in education, test
scores were, on average, at least one month lower when students
returned to school in the fall than when they left in the
spring.
In other words, students who may have finished third grade at a
3.9 level (3rd grade, ninth month), returned to school in the fall,
on average, at a 3.8 level.
"The areas that kids most forget are the things that they learn
through repetition and practice, such as spelling words and math
computation," says Cooper.
Research points to the fact that all young people are at risk of
losing more than two months in math computation skills, regardless
of where they are in the socioeconomic spectrum.
However, when it comes to reading skills, lower income students
are more negatively affected during the summer.
According to Fairchild, "While middle and upper income students
typically do not lose reading skills, and in some cases may
experience a slight gain in reading performance over the summer,
lower income kids typically experience a setback of over two
months."
Though there have been few studies to show the cumulative effect
of those learning losses during elementary school, experts fear
that without quality summer programming, a growth in the
achievement gap between lower and upper income students will
accelerate significantly.
"By the time that kids reach fifth grade," says Fairchild, "on
average, low income kids are close to two years behind their higher
income peers in reading performance as a result of their
experiencing summer learning loss."
And with teachers spending between two and six weeks at the
beginning of each school year re-teaching material that students
have forgotten over the summer, the ramifications of summer
learning loss might affect all students.
Why the learning loss?
One of the reasons for the losses in reading and math skills
over the summer may have to do with how embedded the practice of
these skills are in the child's environment.
"Parents who know the importance of reading will make sure that
their kids read over the summer -- and it is not unusual for kids
to find things to read," says Cooper. "Math is less naturally
embedded in children's environment, so they are more likely to
forget math skills over the summer."
While such learning losses have caused some to question the
fragility of the information that students are learning throughout
the school year, Fairchild offers a different explanation for the
learning loss.
"If professional athletes or musicians took a three-month break
from any type of training or practice, you would expect them to
come back to their sport or to their orchestra experiencing a lag
in their performance, and it would take a while to get back into
performance shape."
And while many parents lament the loss of the lazy days of
summer, experts emphasize that learning doesn't stop just because
the school year ends.
"Forgetting things is something that all humans do," Cooper
says. "Kids have active minds and they are learning all the time.
So it doesn't make much sense to ignore what they are being exposed
to for three months of the year."
Summer learning can be fun
Does the threat of losing ground over the summer mean the end of
summertime fun?
Not according to experts in the field of summer learning loss.
"High quality summer programs can close achievement gaps and make
sure that kids can go back to schools in the fall ready to learn,"
explains Fairchild.
For students who have an academic weakness, summer can be a
perfect time to address it. But as school districts across the
country reinvent the concept of summer school, more and more
children are attending summer enrichment programs that combine a
real focus on academics with a fun-filled recreational
experience.
Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL) is a nonprofit group
that runs full-day academic enrichment programs targeted at low
income populations and communities where kids are most at risk for
experiencing summer learning loss. The organization provides kids
academic instruction, educational, cultural, artistic and
recreational activities, guest speakers, community service and
field trips.
In addition to enrolling children in organized summer programs,
parents can also turn to at-home materials such as the Summer
Bridge Activities workbook series, created by Michele Van
Leeuwen, a mother of three.
The workbooks provide daily activities in reading, writing,
arithmetic and language arts, and they offer parents suggestions
for how to motivate their children to engage in the academic
exercises. Van Leeuwen recommends that parents use the summer to
gauge their children's strengths and weaknesses.
"Many times as parents, we don't know where our children's
challenges are. By going through the Summer Bridge
Activities, parents can identify what their children know and
don't know."
While there are many summer learning materials available to
parents, Cooper stresses, "Variety is the spice of life.
Academic-related activities shouldn't last all day, every day and
neither should down time. Kids are learning all the time, even
during summer, no matter what they're doing."
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