What is the summer slide?
Summer slide is the name given to the loss of academic skills during the three months of summer break. Students work hard to acquire these skills during the school year only to lose them when the schools are closed during the summer. This slide if unchecked leads to a decline in reading, writing and math computation ability and other academic skills.
Facts about Summer Slide
Cumulative Effect: How much could possibly be lost in the summer? Research indicates 2 months of reading skills and 2 1/2 months of math skills are lost over a single summer. Plus, summer slide is cumulative, so those lost months add up over time. Combined over the years, by the time a student reaches middle school, they’ve lost the equivalent of 2 years of learning to the summer slide. And the loss is greater at higher grade levels.
Playing Catch Up: 9 out of 10 teachers have to re-teach material when kids return to school in the fall in order to get students caught up. Teachers spend anywhere from 4-6 weeks re-teaching material students forgot due to the summer slide. Students engaged in some form of learning just 2-3 hours per week during the summer can prevent this summer slide. Having direct access to books can significantly help students reduce brain drain, beat summer slide, and retain information from the school year.