How Families, Children, and Teachers Contribute to Summer Learning and Loss

A number of studies over the past century have yielded two consistent findings about summer loss (Cooper, Nye, Charlton, Lindsay, & Greathouse, 1996). First, students generally gain academic skills at a slower pace over the summer than during the school year. Second, summer loss, at least in some subject areas, may be especially large for less advantaged children. Several scholars have argued that the cumulative effects of this differential summer drop-off are large enough to account for most of the achievement gap that emerges between middle-class and lower-class children during the school years (e.g., Entwisle & Alexander, 1992; Entwisle, Alexander, & Olson, 1997; Heyns, 1987).