The Seasonality of Learning: Implications for Poor Children

• In Event: Innovations in Addressing the Education and Poverty Crisis: The Importance of Researching “Outside of School”

Abstract

Research in Baltimore and elsewhere establishes that during the elementary school years, poor children fall behind academically over the summer months, when their learning is dependent on resources available to them at home in in their local neighborhoods. During the school year, it is a very different picture, as then they come close to keeping up in terms of achievement gains fall to spring. This implications for summer learning loss have received considerable attention in both policy and programming; the school-year learning pattern much less so. In this session Alexander reflects on the implications of this research, and especially the Baltimore-based studies that he and his colleagues have conducted, for understanding the achievement gap across social lines, as well as what this research implies about the learning ability of low income children.

Author

• Karl L. Alexander, The Johns Hopkins University