A new Montgomery County summer school program that sought to accelerate struggling students, rather than concentrate on tedious review, appears to have stemmed the academic free-fall that many poor and non-English-speaking children experience during the summer, according to a study to be released today.

The study found that 4,000 children who attended the intensive four-week program did not experience what researchers call "summer slide," forgetting key academic concepts over the summer break.
—Brigid Schulte, "Weak Pupils Rise Above 'summer slide'," The Washington Post, November 11, 2002

NOVA, the job training and employment program administered for six Santa Clara County cities by the city of Sunnyvale, has lined up contracts with three school systems and a non-profit children's health agency to provide training...for economically disadvantaged young people this summer...

"It's a major change for us," said Mike Curran, NOVA director. "One of the main reasons is to take kids from economically disadvantaged families and stimulate them during the summer, to halt the 'summer slide.' "

Kids in more affluent families tend to reinforce their learning with summer camp, visits to the library and other activities while they're out of school, Curran said. Many poor children don't have those opportunities, and tend to forget much of what they've learned.
—Leland Joachim, "Council offers kids job training," San Jose Mercury News, April 20, 1994

Later this month, on the last day of school at White Street Elementary in Springfield, fifth-grade teacher Kathy Nozzolillo will give each of her students a going-away gift, a a book to read over the summer.

It is part of Nozzolillo's attempt to keep her students from falling victim to what researchers call the Summer Slide Back or Summer Lag, a phenomenon that strikes untold numbers of children who don't read during the summer. Research shows that by September, these students will have a reading level that is six to 12 months behind what it was in June, and their reading and math test scores will drop significantly, too.

Research also shows that children who do read during the summer maintain their reading level or read at a higher level in the fall, depending how much they read, according to educational consultant Jim Trelease, who lectures nationally on the importance of reading. The author of "The New Read-Aloud Handbook" and "Hey! Listen to This," an anthology of read-aloud stories for kindergarten through fourth graders (Penguin), Trelease says 15 minutes of reading a day is a minimum.
—Barbara F. Meltz, "Keep them reading all summer long," The Boston Globe, June 5, 1992