Dick and Jane have made strides in reading this spring, building vocabulary, tackling more challenging content, inching through a portal that will open a wide world they can only guess at for now. It’s filled with green eggs, big red dogs, wild things and wimpy kids. Robots, wizards and space travel, too. But here comes summer, and if no one’s paying attention, Dick spends it zoned out on video games or TV and Jane has a phone attached like a body part. Come the school bells of August, it shows. Ask almost any teacher. “Summer slide,” it’s commonly called, when kids fall behind in reading and other academic skills over summer. It’s cumulative and documented, and particularly damaging to children from lower-income households.
But summer is meant for sunshine, flip-flops and chilling out, right? Granted, but that doesn’t erase the fact that summer learning loss is real, as multiple studies reveal.
Oxford Learning cites sobering bullet points compiled from sources including the National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) and Little Scholastic: Up to two months or more of reading skills can be lost over summer. Teachers spend as many as six weeks helping students relearn what was lost. By sixth grade, students who have experienced summer learning loss over the years are an average of two or more years behind their peers. By the start of high school, two-thirds of the income-based achievement gap between lower-income and middle- or higher-income students is attributed to summer learning loss. Repercussions snowball, affecting employment, college and careers, says the NSLA. At its worst, learning loss is a significant contributor to dropout rates. And that affects all of us.
Why a gap?
Why are lower-income students, as a whole, often affected more by summer learning loss? It frequently comes down to access — to sufficient reading resources at home, to summer enrichment programs or camps, even to a supportive adult on hand to guide and encourage. Disadvantaged children tend to spend a lot of time unsupervised, with limited resources for constructive activity.
“Research says that if people are low income, they’re busy trying to survive; reading is the last thing on their list,” says Melissa Parker, a National Board certified first-grade teacher at West Lowndes Elementary School. In 21 years as an educator, she’s often witnessed the “noticeable drop” in proficiency when children return to class. The so-called “faucet theory” suggests that when summer comes around, academic resources for lower-income populations are turned off. Area schools have seen federal funding for summer programs at schools reduced or eliminated. Middle- and higher-income parents have their own resources to compensate and provide what their child might need when school isn’t in session, according to the NSLA.
In Lowndes County, Imagination Library and My Book are helping address the issue of books at home for children of all households. Imagination Library mails a free book each month to every child under the age of 5 who is enrolled.
During the 2016-2017 school year alone, My Book of Lowndes County supplied 2,200 books to first graders in the Columbus Municipal School District, at West Lowndes Elementary School and to a student reading group at Columbus Middle School. The goal is at least five books per student.
“Many of these books are first used as part of the curriculum and then are sent home to build the student’s personal home library,” said My Book board member and school liaison Robbie Foxx.
In one My Book evaluation, a child wrote, “I like getting the books because they help me learn more words and I can add them to my book collection.”
“I thought that was so precious,” Foxx said. “That’s it in a nutshell. That is our goal, to help overcome illiteracy. We want our children to be educated.”
Keep reading
The good news? There are options to combat summer slide and keep kids’ minds engaged. That’s a key word: engagement, which usually starts with a parent or guardian. The simple answer is to keep kids reading. “What frequent reading does is build vocabulary and fluency,” says Parker, who urges parents to get familiar with summer work packets teachers send home, containing readers, reading comprehension and math practices.
“And what I always recommend to parents is the Summer Bridge Activity books, sold at Books A Million, Walmart and on Amazon,” Parker says.
One of a parent’s staunchest allies — year-round and especially in summer — are the Golden Triangle’s libraries.
Fairview Aerospace and Science Magnet School Principal Evan Caine said, “Take your child to the library and get them a library card. At our last honor roll program I stressed how important it is that children read during the summer; those skills get rusty.”
Build a Better World
The theme for area library summer reading programs this year is “Build a Better World.” It’s a vibrant concept to envelop ideas including literacy, environmental sustainability and positive character traits, said C.T. Salazar, Youth Services librarian at the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library.
“We’re bringing in so many great presenters!” he adds. Tommy Terrific the magician, Terry the Snake Man, a guest from the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, Columbus Fire and Rescue and many more will motivate kids to read about related subjects. Mother Goose Story Time continues through summer, too.
At Columbus, Starkville and West Point libraries, children and teens can sign up to keep track of books they read this summer in order to received certificates of achievement or rewards.
“Readers can turn in their sheets to us and earn Walmart gift cards,” said Starkville Public Library Children’s Librarian Christina Jurusik. Her tips for beating summer slide in youngsters include singing the ABCs on the way to the grocery store, reading signs around town as you drive or listening to audio books in the car.
“And this is one of my favorites: Build a fort in the bathtub and read a book — but don’t turn on the water,” she says with a laugh.
At West Point’s Bryan Public Library, sign up for the summer reading program and enter the “Name the Alligator” contest (dovetailing with a visit from the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science). Or plan a costume for the 20th anniversary of the release of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”
Other tips for standing up to summer slide include checking with area churches that might offer summer programs. Put a newspaper in front of a child and read the comics with them or maybe read a sports article with a little athlete. Read a book with your child in the morning, when children are used to learning and before other plans cause distraction.
“Let them watch public television,” Parker adds. “It’s one of the most under-used resources in the home.”
Ah, summer. Yes, enjoy the break, educators say. But be open to all the creative ways to help a child soar, not slide.
Editor’s note: More information about summer learning loss is available on numerous sites including summerlearning.org.
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.