The average student loses one to three months of learning over summer, and a National Center for Education Statistics report suggests one reason for the “summer slide”: Students from lower-income homes engage in different activities than their better-off peers.
The study found that in the summer after kindergarten, 83 percent of children from low-income households did not have regular care arrangements with someone other than their parents, compared to 70 percent of those from non-poor homes. Higher-income students were also more likely to attend summer camp, with 38 percent of nonpoor students attending a day camp, compared to 13 percent of near-poor students and 7 percent of poor students.
