The school year is wrapping up, and most students won’t see the inside of a classroom for months. To kids, this means vacation, but to teachers it means lots of catch-up in the fall. According to a study [2] by the John Hopkins’ Center for Summer Learning, without summer educational programs, the average student falls two months behind in his reading skills.
The “summer slide” disproportionately affects students living in poverty because their families may not have the access to summer educational opportunities available to more affluent families. This disparity goes a long way toward explaining the achievement gap that widens at each grade level. The good news is that there are easy, low-cost summer educational options out there—parents just need to be told about them.
As you send your students off this year, give them a parent letter with suggestions for affordable summer educational resources. These tips—based on John Hopkins’ research [2]—will get you started.
Links:
[1] http://www.tolerance.org/author/teaching-tolerance-staff
[2] http://www.jhu.edu/news/home07/jun07/summtips.html