School’s Out for Summer–Now What?
School’s Out for Summer–Now What?
by Laysha Ward
As millions of children start streaming out of schools for a much-anticipated break, it’s important to remember that there is a price to pay for summers free of learning. Students who don’t engage in educational activities over the summer lose between one and three months of learning every year on average. In reading, the loss is cumulative; by the end of sixth grade, students who lose their reading skills over the summer will be as much as two full years behind their classmates.
So, for all the critical focus on how to improve the time our children spend in schools, we should also be looking at the time they spend away. And everything should be on the table–from how parents keep their kids engaged at home, to the prioritization of structured summer learning camps, and even the length of the school day, school