Addressing the Learning Loss in Students

As is known, every summer, students across the world eagerly anticipate a break from their academic journey. However, this period of respite comes with a hidden educational challenge known as the summer learning loss (SLL), often labelled “summer slide” or “summer brain” This is a phenomenon where students lose a significant portion of knowledge and skills, they acquired during the school year. Recent studies have highlighted this issue's results, revealing that students lose half of the information and skills they acquire during the school year. Surprisingly, there is significant variability among students in SLL rate, with declines accruing to the same students over time.

(Brokensha, 2017) points out that summer learning loss refers to the decline in reading and other academic skills experienced by some students over the long summer break. Previous research suggests that this reduction in achievement levels over summer particularly affects those students who are most likely at risk of lower attainment levels generally, and especially the very young from these groups. In fact, this decline in skills over summer can have a lasting effect with studies showing that around (80%) of the difference in reading achievement levels between low SES and high SES students can be attributed to cumulative losses over summer.

Atteberry & McEachin's study (2020) findings revealed that achievement variation increases significantly from grade (1) to grade (8). Additionally, summer learning shows much more dramatic variation compared to school-year learning. Furthermore, student achievement disparities may grow dramatically during these summer months when children's experiences appear most diverse, and student learning slows during the summer. Summer reading setback occurs when students return to school after summer vacation with diminished reading skills, presumably from a lack of adequate reading practice. Summer setbacks affect children from families of different socioeconomic groups differently. Available research indicates that the reading achievement of poor children, as a group, typically declines during the summer vacation period, while the reading achievement of children from more economically advantaged families holds steady or increases modestly. Once again, the current preferred intervention designs seem to focus on the youngest students and the development of basic phonological skills the extent of summer learning loss is predominantly concentrated in languages and skills among all students.

In this context, literature offers numerous and varied reasons for summer learning loss. As previously noted, most research indicates a correlation between low socioeconomic status (SES) and declining achievement over the summer. Some researchers, such as Graham, McNamara, and Van Lankveld (2011), attribute this decline to the lack of available books at home. In an educational experiment, the five-week interventions focused on teaching the children reading and phonemic awareness, and knowledge of letter-sound correspondence, resulting in significant gains. The study recommended that these skills can be practiced confidently at home and contribute to addressing summer learning loss to some extent.

To sum up, there is scientific evidence of learning loss among students, and this loss is concentrated in language and skills specifically. This decline may be explained by students' engagement with tablet devices, which consume all their time, In addition to their low interest in reading and writing.