Can a Multiyear Summer Program Prevent the Accumulation of Summer Learning Losses?

Researchers have established that the summer achievement slide has a particularly harmful impact on poor children’s reading achievement (Entwisle, Alexander, & Olson, 1997; Cooper, Nye, Charlton, Lindsay, & Greathouse, 1996; Heyns, 1978). Although middle-class children’s test scores essentially plateau during the summer months, poor children’s reading scores tend to show marked declines. Evidence from the metaanalysis by Cooper et al. (1996) suggests that during the summer, the reading skill levels of poor children fall about 3 months behind those of their middle-class peers. This represents a difference that is equal to a third of the typical amount of learning that takes place over the course of the regular school year.