Study: More than half of US students experience summer learning losses
five years in a row
These students on average lose nearly 40 percent of their school year
gains

Date:
July 9, 2020
Source:
American Educational Research Association
Summary:
Following U.S. students across five summers between grades 1 and 6,
a little more than half (52 percent) experienced learning losses
in all five summers, according to a large national study. Students
in this group lost an average of 39 percent of their total school
year gains during each summer.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Following U.S. students across five summers between grades 1 and 6, a
little more than half (52 percent) experienced learning losses in all five summers, according to a large national study published today. Students
in this group lost an average of 39 percent of their total school year
gains during each summer. The study appeared in American Educational
Research Journal, a peer- reviewed publication of the American Educational Research Association.


========================================================================== "Many children in the U.S. have not physically attended a school since
early March because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and some have likened
the period we're in now to an unusually long summer," said study author
Allison Atteberry, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado
-- Boulder. "Because our results highlight that achievement disparities disproportionately widen during the summer, this is deeply concerning." "Teachers nationwide are likely wondering how different their classes
will be in the coming fall," Atteberry said. "To the extent that student learning loss plays a larger-than-usual role this year, we would
anticipate that teachers will encounter even greater variability in
students' jumping-off points when they return in fall 2020." For the
study Atteberry and her co-author, Andrew J. McEachin, a researcher at
the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, used a database
from NWEA, which includes more than 200 million test scores for nearly
18 million students in 7,500 school districts across all 50 states from
2008 through 2016.

The authors found that although some students learn more than others
during the school year, most are moving in the same direction -- that is, making learning gains -- while school is in session. The same cannot
be said for summers, when more than half of students exhibit learning
losses year after year.

Twice as many students exhibit five years of consecutive summer losses
-- as opposed to no change or gains -- as one would expect by chance,
according to the authors.



==========================================================================
The pattern is so strong that even if all differences in learning rates
between students during the school year could be entirely eliminated,
students would still end up with very different achievement rates due
to the summer period alone.

"Our results highlight that achievement disparities disproportionately
widen during summer periods, and presumably the 'longer summer' brought
on by Covid- 19 would allow this to happen to an even greater extent,"
said Atteberry.

"Summer learning loss is just one example of how the current crisis
will likely exacerbate outcome inequality." Among the students studied, depending on grade, the average student loses between 17 and 28 percent
of school-year gains in English language arts during the following
summer. In math, the average student loses between 25 and 34 percent of
each school-year gain during the following summer.

However Atteberry and McEachin focus their attention not on average
patterns of summer learning loss, but rather on the dramatic variability
around those means from one student to another.

"For instance in grade 2 math, at the high end of the distribution,
students accrue an additional 32 percent of their school-year gains
during the following summer," said Atteberry. "At the other end of the distribution, however, students can lose nearly 90 percent of what they
have gained in the preceding school year." "This remarkable variability
in summer learning rates appears to be an important contributor to
widening achievement disparities during the school-age years," Atteberry
said. "Because summer losses tend to accumulate for the same students
over time, consecutive losses add up to a sizeable impact on where
students end up in the achievement distribution."


========================================================================== Atteberry noted that more research is needed to better understand
what accounts for most of the summer variation across students. Prior
research, including a 2018 study published in Sociology of Education,
has found that race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status predict summer
learning but, together, account for only up to 4 percent of the variance
in summer learning rates.

Policy leaders across the United States have experimented with different approaches, including extending the school year and running summer bridge programs, to address concerns with summer learning losses. These need
to be further assessed for effectiveness, said Atteberry.

Researchers have pointed to gaps in resources such as family income,
parental time availability, and parenting skill and expectations
as potential drivers of outcome inequality. Many of these resource
differences are likely exacerbated by summer break when, for some
families, work schedules come into greater conflict with reduced
childcare.

"Our results suggest that we should look beyond just schooling solutions
to address out-of-school learning disparities," Atteberry said. "Many
social policies other than public education touch on these crucial
resource inequalities and thus could help reduce summer learning
disparities." This study was supported by funding from the Kingsbury
Center at the NWEA, the Smith Richardson Foundation, and the Institute
of Education Sciences.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
American_Educational_Research_Association. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Allison Atteberry, Andrew McEachin. School's Out: The Role of
Summers in
Understanding Achievement Disparities. American Educational Research
Journal, 2020; 000283122093728 DOI: 10.3102/0002831220937285 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200709135545.htm

--- up 24 weeks, 2 days, 2 hours, 34 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1337:3/111)