Educational Inequality, the Summer Learning Gap, and the Summer "Activity Gap" in 1999 and 2011

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

Purpose of study
The achievement gap between high- and low-SES children in the United States appears to be widening (Reardon, 2011). Seasonal comparison research indicates that this gap principally grows while children are on summer vacation: While high- and low-SES children learn at similar rates during the school year, high-SES children learn significantly more during the summer than do low-SES children (e.g. Alexander, Entwisle, & Olson, 2001, 2007; Burkam, Ready, Lee, & LoGerfo, 2004; Downey, von Hippel, & Broh, 2004; Heyns, 1978). I hypothesize that a widening summer ‘activity gap’ between high- and low-SES children may in part drive this trend, as in recent years high-SES parents have substantially increased their investments in their children’s cognitive development. Yet to date, we have virtually no evidence on how the distribution of children’s summer learning and activities have changed in recent decades.

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 activity participation differ from those of children beginning kindergarten seventeen years ago. An examination of whether and how the SES ‘summer learning gap’ and ‘summer activity gap’ have changed could provide insight into a key hypothesized mechanism for the growth in educational inequality.

Study design and methods
I utilize two primary datasets: the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) and ECLS-K 2010-11. ECLS-K followed the educational experiences of a nationally representative sample of U.S. children (N=18,211) from kindergarten (1998) through the eighth grade. ECLS-K 2010-11 is a new longitudinal study which is following a new cohort of fall 2010 kindergarteners (N=18,200). The design, sampling strategy, and measures for ECLS-K and ECLS-K 2010-11 are nearly identical, enabling researchers to conduct cross-cohort comparisons (NCES, 2011).

I make two kinds of comparisons. First, I describe the differences in summer learning and summer activity participation between high- and low-SES children within each cohort. I describe the average spring and fall literacy and math test scores and summer gain scores, and the average frequency of participation in measured summer activities, for children in each quintile of composite SES, parent income, and parent education within each cohort. Second, I evaluate whether SES-related gaps in summer activity participation and summer learning are larger for the later ECLS-K cohort than for the earlier cohort.

Findings and policy implications
The SES achievement gap appears to have widened in recent decades, and scholars hypothesize that this may occur during the summer. The current research is needed because an examination of whether and how the income-based ‘summer activity gap’ and ‘summer learning gap’ are widening will shed light on a key hypothesized mechanism for how the SES-based achievement gap may be widening.

Author

• Kathleen Lynch, Harvard University