Contextualizing Summer Learning Inequality in Ontario: Long- and Short-Term Benefits

• In Event: Summer Learning Makes a Difference!

Abstract

1.This paper examines the long and short term benefits of attending literacy and numeracy summer programs offered by 6 school boards in Ontario, Canada. The longitudinal component offers a unique look at the impact of attending summer programs by investigating i) whether students benefit from attending summer programs over consecutive years, and ii) whether attending summer programs improves participants’ achievement during the following school year and summer. In the short-term, this paper examines the qualitative benefits of attending summer program interventions including enhanced home-school connections.

2. A substantial body of research identifies summertime as a key source of education achievement gaps between more and less advantaged youth, particularly if those patterns are compounded over several summers. In Baltimore, research attributes disparities in summer learning to most of the SES gap in high school achievement, high school completion, and university attendance (Alexander et al, 2007; Downey et al., 2008). Seasonal learning designs allow us to estimate family and school effects on learning by isolating non-school and school time (e.g., Firebaugh, 2008:216-8).

3. We use a "seasonal learning" and "quasi-experimental" design to compare literacy and numeracy gains and losses for summer program participants and a control group. We conducted semi-structured interviews and site visits.

4. Our longitudinal data set consists of 3500 summer program attendees and their non-participating classmates (control group). Both groups are tested using STAR Reading or STAR Math in June and then again in September. We bolster our data by linking these data with information from parent surveys and from students’ report cards. The qualitative components includes 218 interviews with parents and educators from three of the six longitudinal school boards.

5. We found the following: i) students who attend consecutive summers manage to keep pace with their peers’ achievement over the 2013-14 school year and over the summer of 2014; ii) attendees have better summer learning outcomes than their peers. According to parents and teachers, several initiatives are believed to improve home school connections, student engagement and professional learning.

6. This paper examines whether the benefits of summer programs, like any educational intervention, suffer from “fade out effects”, and perhaps eventually disappear altogether unless children receive follow-up interventions. From our findings, we conclude that attending summer programs over consecutive summers can help children with academic challenges keep pace with their peers, both during the school year and during the summer. Qualitatively, parents and teachers attribute the summer program with several positive benefits that spill over to the following school year. Broadly, our findings can be used to devise alternate methods of assessing school effectiveness that can more accurately measure the 'added-value' of a school on achievement.

References
Alexander, Karl L., Doris R. Entwisle, and Linda Steffel Olson. 2007. “Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap.” American Sociological Review 72(2):167-180.

Downey, Douglas B., Paul T. vonHippel, and Melanie Hughes. 2008. “Are ‘Failing’ Schools Really Failing? Using Seasonal Comparison to Evaluate School Effectiveness” Sociology of Education 81: 242-270.

Firebaugh, G. 2008. Seven Rules for Social Research. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Authors

• Scott Davies, University of Toronto - OISE

• Janice Aurini, University of Waterloo