Rachel Gwaltney considers education the great equalizer for children, but summer break has the opposite effect. When the school year ends, she says the gap between high- and low-income students starts to grow.
“No matter how much we do during the school year we’re not going to be able to make up those gaps during the nine months,” said Gwaltney, director of policy & partnerships at the National Summer Learning Association.
“So it turns into a cost to communities down the road in terms of remediation, job opportunities, economic development down the road as these kids turn into our local workforce. There’s many far-reaching, rippling effects of this achievement gap overall and we see how much what happens over the summer matters.”
According to the National Summer Learning Association, students can lose up to three months of learning over the summer.
Gwaltney says the issue is acute for lower-income students who may not be able to participate in family vacations, day camps or outdoor adventures like their peers.
“Those losses are cumulative so by the end of fifth grade, our low-income kids might be two or three years behind their peers and they’re not going to catch up during the school year.”
But Gwaltney adds learning during the summer doesn’t necessarily mean sitting down with worksheets or spending a lot of money. She says all students can benefit from doing art, going to the library, cooking, swimming or pursuing any sport.
“One of the beautiful things about the summer time is it gives kids a chance to dive into something of interest to them, so they have this time to focus on what they’re really excited about, what they’re interested in learning about and really spend some focused time on it in a non-high pressure kind of situation.”