Summer Learning Loss

In recent years, there has been much debate over the length of the school year, and if it is long enough to be efficient in teaching students. The main concern is a problem known as summer learning loss. On average, American students lose “about one month in teaching instruction over the course of summer vacation, largely in math skills” (1). However, disadvantaged students also tend to lose reading proficiency skills as well. Another concern is that despite the amount of time students currently spend in class, the US is still falling behind other countries in mathematics and is currently only average in science and reading. Some believe that summer learning loss is to blame for this. Still, the question remains: Will lengthening the school

He believes students should attend school 220 days a year with only a month of vacation in the summer and the other four weeks divided up during the year as breaks. He also suggests a school day that resembles the schedule of working parents, going from the current average 6 1/2-hour day to an 8-hour day. The extra class time would be used to personalize education and make it more well-rounded with less common subjects and extracurriculars. He mentions that students could also practice skills more at school and therefore need less homework. In his essay “Part-Time Learning Is a Thing of the Past,” he says that with this kind of personalization, “students could advance whenever they have mastered the skills and gained the knowledge on which they are currently working, not based on the arbitrary timing of units and assembly line-progression across grades. Some students could whiz far ahead while others would get the extra help they need.” (7). Gabrieli believes that this progress in learning would bring US schooling into the 21st century and meet or surpass the competition of kids in other

For example, Gabrieli believes that lengthening the school year is something that must be done in order to catch up to the scores of other countries and meet the demands of the 21st century. However, Weingarten says that lengthening the school year is only a Band-Aid solution and districts need to take more consideration into how non-instructional challenges students face, such as accessibility of enrichment opportunities over the summer, affect summer learning loss. If they do this then they can create summer programs to address these challenges and avoid the scheduling struggle that comes with lengthening the school year. Fortunately, there is also much agreement. For example, both sides agree that whatever course of action is taken, it cannot be a top-down, one-size-fits-all solution. It needs to be decided based on the needs of the community. They also agree that additional time in school shouldn’t just be more core academics and standardized learning. It needs to be more personalized with enriching activities and subjects that have been previously stripped from schools and inspire students to learn and stay