"Summer-Slide" Experts at the Johns Hopkins University

Newswise — Research by Johns Hopkins and others has shown that all students lose over two months of mathematical computation skills over the summer months. Low-income children experience much greater summer learning losses in reading than their higher income peers contributing to the growth of the achievement gap. For example, by the end of fifth-grade, low-income children fall more than two years behind their middle-income peers in verbal achievement as a direct result of summer learning differences. In addition to having an adverse impact on learning, summer vacation also has negative effects on the health and nutrition of many young people. On average, only one in five children across the country who receive free and low-cost school lunches participate in federal nutrition programs during the summer.