Summer Learning: From What’s Not Happening to What Could Be?

Learning is the persistence of knowledge over time, but the concept can be muddied by questions of when and how it occurs.

At the end of a school year, ask a teacher what learning is and how they know it has occurred and you’re sure to get a different response than that of a child, a parent, or a state funding agency.

As students across the country begin soaking up the summer sun, a familiar concern is

— what happens to learning in the summer?

The answer is as varied as the definition of learning. There is the consensus that students slide back 1 month in learning by the end of summer (typically measured by comparing test scores in math and reading from the fall to the previous spring). Losses and gains are also influenced by factors like race, socioeconomic status, and age.

Minnesota Public Radio News described the dip in summer learning, known as the summer slide. A panel of educators provided tips for families to help their children with summer learning.

I build upon these suggestions from a psychological perspective to help with learning in the summer and year round.

• Learning requires RESOURCES. Learning dips are often determined by socioeconomic status (SES). High SES students tend to avoid a summer slip and low SES students fall further behind. Consider what a typical summer might be like depending on resources.
  

  • Who goes to camp, museums, or possibly vacations to far-away places?

  • Who has easy access to educational programming at home or technology?

One eye-opening finding from the MPR program was that high SES families spend about $5,000 on summer activities!

• Learning requires ACCESS. Researchers emphasize the need for access to knowledge rich resources over the summer (programs, technology, and books). Research from the journal, Urban Education uses the term “book deserts” to indicate living areas where children have limited to no access to books.

Many apps are available to teach and engage children. It can be difficult to pick high-quality and free content. Find some vetted resources HERE. Ask your kid's teachers. My elementary school child brought home a QR code from school to a learning app with year-round access.

• Learning requires MOTIVATION. Students need to be filled with curiosity to learn. Consider a small child who loves searching for bugs or a teenager who can tell you encyclopedic-quality baseball statistics. Students’ curiosity may be silenced because of their environment. Love of learning can also be squashed during the school year by an academic focus on “test scores are best.”
  

Parents with the best intentions may have trouble motivating their children to do summer learning. Similar to me not taking full advantage of warmer weather to walk my dogs everyday, my children struggle with motivation for traditional learning tasks in the summer.

I suggest expanding our idea of what learning looks like. Play-time in the summer is precious. Children are learning when they are outside, playing their favorite games, and yes even with technology. Talk to your children and find out what their interests are. Find books or activities that you can share. My kids are not quite teen-agers so they still enjoy the occasional chat.

• Learning requires SHARING. Funding for community programs is limited and cannot address the needs of all students. If you are a student, reach out to a friend who may benefit from an invite to play and learn at a museum for a day. Parents and informed adults, help spread the word of camps and enrichment programs that could benefit an acquaintance. When you enroll your child, find out if you can make a donation to fund another student.

• Learning is about SKILLS not SCORES. We should broaden our definition of learning and focus less on a score and more on skills. Sure, reading and math fundamentals are important but so are skills like: Curiosity, motivation, empathy, kindness, critical thinking, communication, wellness, life skills, and study skills. How are these being learned? Thy may get kicked aside because they are difficult to measure.

Learning occurs throughout the year and involves having: Resources, Access, Motivation, Sharing, and emphasizing Skills. Ultimately, as academic skills become automated, we must not substitute the uniquely human capacities for creation, connection, and empathy.

References

Angela Davis (Host). (2019). How to help your students aren Zamora (Executive producer), MPR News with Angela Davis. St. Paul, MN: MPR.org. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/06/05/davis-summer-slide

Bendici, R., Restifo, D., & Ofgang, E. (2024, May 10). Best summer learning apps & sites. Publisher Name. Retrieved July 24, 2024, from https://www.publisherwebsite.com/best-summer-learning-apps-sites

Neuman, S. B. & Moland, N. (2019). Book Deserts: The Consequences of Income Segregation on Children’s Access to Print. Urban Education, 54(1), 126-147

Pappas, S. (2023, July 10). School’s out. Should you worry about the ‘summer slide’? Kids don’t typically advance academically during the summer, but the research isn’t clear on whether they forget what they’ve already learned. Scientific American. Retrieved July 24, 2024, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/schools-out-should-you-worry-about-the-summer-slide