Summer Reading Loss - Think Outside the Box

The New York Times today is running an op-ed piece about a widely reported problem, that of summer learning loss ("This is Your Brain on Summer"). Jeff Smink reminds us of the cumulative negative effect, particularly for low-income students, of the long summer vacation on students' ability to achieve.

There are plenty of obstacles to simply extending the school year, and perhaps this isn't the best plan anyway. What if students had individual summer learning plans that could be completed online, either at home or through more formal centers, depending on community needs? As mobile devices become less expensive and as educators find increasing uses for them, there are plenty of opportunities for us to come up with creative ways for students to continue to learn, but to tie their education into their own interests, experiences, and needs.

Effective summer online learning, just like in the offline world, will be to have driven by experienced educators -- school librarians, teachers, and administrators -- putting together an appropriate level of challenging and compelling activities that are assessed. Most students will need some level of support through online access and in-person presence that could be at a school, but could also be at libraries or other community centers. Kids who are now in grades K-12 are almost sure to access online learning as college students or adults (and many now get it in secondary school too), so why not use this as a means to deliver summer education as a complement to the classroom learning they get during the school year. Instead of competing with activities that students can do in the summer - leisure reading, hobbies, outdoor interests, travel, local day trips, visiting with family and friends -- build off of them. The end result is likely less expensive and more effective than a longer traditional school year.