Digest #179: Combating Summer Learning Loss
Cover image by ViJakob from Pixabay
Digest compiled by Megan Sumeracki
For those of us in the northern hemisphere, summer* is coming! Whether you have two weeks or almost two months left in your academic year, the warmer weather and growing plants are a regular reminder that we’re getting closer every day to our summer break. Summer break is often fun for kids and can give educators a much needed break to decompress (or prepare for next year…) but can also spark fears about learning loss. In this digest, we present some resources explaining summer learning loss and the data, and resources to give parents and teachers ideas for how to combat summer learning loss while still having summer fun.
*As an academic, and especially becuase I’m in higher education, my concepts of “fall,” “spring,” and “summer” are a bit skewed. For me, fall starts in August, spring in January, and summer in May. This often causes confusion when I say things to my extended family, like “spring is about to start!” and it’s mid January. But anyway, I digress.
1) Summer learning loss: What we know and what we’re learning, by Megan Kuhfeld and Andrew McEachin, NWEA
This educational blog post is packed full of data about who is most likely to experience summer learning loss, plus information and resources for planning effective summer programming.
2) 5 ways to help prevent summer learning loss by Ian Hanigan, OCDE Newsroom, Education News from Orange County and Beyond
This piece is short and sweet with 5 things parents can do with their kids.
Image by Anna Prosekova from Pixabay
Another piece that gives brief tips that parents can use to encourage reading and math skills practice over the summer.
This piece focuses on summer reading gaps (95 Percent Group is focused on evidence-based practice in literacy). This isn’t a nonprofit, and the end of their piece does have some phonics programs that can be purchased. But, there are great tips in the piece, such as links to The Reading League and Reading Rockets (both nonprofits).
5) Despite progress, achievement gaps persist during recovery from pandemic, by Elizabeth Ross, Harvard Graduate School of Education
In the 2020s, it seems odd to talk about learning loss without mentioning Covid. Yes, we are recovering. Yes, achievement gaps persist. Yes, these gaps are inequitable across populations of people (at least in the US, but I imagine everywhere, too). There are only so many tips we can provide for combating summer learning loss. These tips are great, but don’t need to be repeated five times! So, for this last item, a piece covering some of the data on gaps in math and reading, published in January 2024.
If you’re interested in test score data, Emily Oster from ParentData has a piece on this, and a Covid-19 School Data Hub (from the US).
From time to time, we pick a theme and provide a curated list of links. If you have a theme suggestion, please don’t hesitate to contact us! Occasionally we publish a guest digest, and If you'd like to propose a guest digest click here. Our 5 most recent digests can be found here:
Digest #174: Assessing Learning Strategies
Digest #175: Authentic Assessments
Digest #176: For When You’re Feeling the Pressure!
