We often speak of the importance of having children participate in summer learning programs and camps, but never have the academic advantages been made so clear as in an amazing study commissioned by the Wallace Foundation in 2011. You can find read the entire study online by following this link.
The goal of this study was to explore the effects of summer learning program participation on the academic performance of students. The main premise was that having such long vacations during the summer often leads to something called “summer learning loss” which means that students lose some of their learning over the summer.
Although the study presented many interesting findings, here are two that stood out to us:
Summer learning loss contributes to the Achievement Gap
As it turns out, students do lose skills over their long summer breaks, especially in mathematics. However, what is very important to note is that the small losses year over year can cumulate into larger gaps in learning as children progress through school.
Students who attend summer learning programs have better outcomes than their peers
Attending or participate in summer learning programs (even just as simple as an at-home reading program) is linked to positive effects of student academic achievement. However, it is important to note that in order to truly benefit from these programs, they must be designed to encourage attendance, participation and high quality programming.
At Explorations, we pride ourselves on our ability to create engaging learning opportunities that are lead by qualified, professional teachers.
Be sure to learn more about all the amazing summer programs Explorations Camp has to offer by visiting our registration page.
