Summer Learning and Parent Investments in Summer Enrichment Activities

• In Event: 16.060 - Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: 16.060-5 - Starting Out Right: The Impacts of Early Childhood Education

Abstract

The achievement gap between high- and low-income children in the United States appears to have widened considerably in the last quarter of the twentieth century (Reardon, 2011). Seasonal comparison research suggests that this gap may widen primarily while children are on summer vacation. Using new, nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K 10-11) and from ECLS-K 1998-99, I explore how contemporary kindergarten children’s summer learning and enrichment activity participation differ from those of children beginning kindergarten approximately two decades ago.

Author

• Kathleen Lynch, Harvard University