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Reducing Summer Learning Loss

September 11, 2006

A voluntary summer school program helps prevent students from falling behind over the summer and can improve students’ longitudinal learning outcomes. Geoffrey Borman and colleagues studied the effectiveness of the Teach Baltimore Summer Academy, comparing the learning outcomes of a trial treatment group of 438 students from high-poverty schools with those for 248 children randomized into the no-treatment ‘control’ condition. Students attending at least two of three summers at an average attendance rate returned to school in the fall of the 3rd year of the study with achievement scores of approximately one-half of one standard deviation higher than those of their similar peers from the control group. This translates into gains of 50 percent of one grade level in vocabulary, 40 percent of one grade level in comprehension, and 41 percent of one grade level on total reading.