With Break Almost Over, Teachers Can Still Stem Summer Learning Loss
August 7, 2019
By: Lauren Barack
Source: Education Dive
With summer break rounding the halfway mark toward a new school year, educators will find that not every pupil forgot the previous year’s lessons during the time off. Experts believe summer learning loss is a bit more nuanced and doesn’t impact every student the same way.
“Some students have gains. There’s not a set number for everyone,” Rebecca Lavinson, policy associate with the nonprofit American Youth Policy Forumin Washington, D.C., told Education Dive. Lavinson suggests that any outreach from educators — whether at the start of summer, ideally, or later — is helpful.
“The sooner you can get materials out there, engage with students, get them resources they need, and get them participating in academic activities, the better,” she said.
If schools haven’t set up a summer program yet, experts say there is still time to offer students suggestions that are doable for all families in terms of time and financial demands. If summer is over, assessing students quickly when they return — looking at reading levels, for example — will be key to finding where they are now in terms of skills, and determining how to get them back on track if any loss has occurred.