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 meta-analysis 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.