D.C. students choose to enroll in summer school to stay on track (July 2016)

July 17, 2016 • Filed under Press Coverage Highlights

The Washington Post

Summer school is no longer just for students who are required to enroll in remedial education.

National and local advocates say the hot months — which for many conjure images of beaches, pools and lazy days — exacerbate the achievement gap and lead to significant “summer brain drain,” with students losing academic skills while away from school.

So families are enrolling their children in academic-focused summer programs to stay on track or get ahead for the coming school year.

National Summer Learning Day —an advocacy day celebrated last Wednesday — emphasizes the importance of keeping children learning during the long summer break. In 2009, experts from Johns Hopkins University determined that, regardless of family income or background, students lose more than two months of the math computational skills they learned during the academic year. In reading, students from low-income homes lose as much as three months of their skills, while middle-class students make slight gains.

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