By David M. Quinn and Morgan Polikoff for brookings.edu
As students return to school this fall, many of them – perhaps especially those from historically disadvantaged student groups – will be starting the academic year with achievement levels lower than where they were at the beginning of summer break. This phenomenon – sometimes referred to as summer learning loss, summer setback, or summer slide – has been of interest to education researchers going back as far as 1906. We review what is known about summer loss and offer suggestions for districts and states looking to combat the problem.
Students’ achievement scores declined over summer vacation by one month’s worth of school-year learning.