Summer learning loss is the loss of academic skills and knowledge over summer vacation. Studies show specific amount of loss (usually measures in months of achievement) in specific grade levels and content areas with contributing factors such as income.
For that reason, I also wish to incorporate the emerging technology gap which focuses on the advantages/disadvantages of students who do/do not have regular access to digital tools and the Web at home. Therefore, I would ideally like my tool to be low cost and accessible by all students.
Affordable online games can be used in the homes of K-12 students over summer vacation to help obtain the knowledge and skills that they work with during the school year. This way, there are less drops in standardized test scores and teachers are required to spend less time playing "catch up" at the beginning of each school year.
During this course (CEP 812 - Spring 2010) I will research and determine the best tools and implementation strategies that will make for an effective remedy for summer learning loss and this project will be testing/implemented in K-12 homes during the summer vacation following the 2009-2010 school year.
If you stay with this you can research e2020 which is a program that many schools are using in our area for credit recovery. There should be research on this also. There is also NovNet and Plato too.
ReplyDeleteStudy Island is a great one for K-9. A lot of schools use it for remediation and acceleration. The Gizmos at http://explorelearning.com are great too. Unfortunately these all have a cost to them!
This sounds like a great idea to research. I know that when students have a large gap in their math education (which easily happens even during the school year in block scheduling) it can be hard to get them back on track when they return. More class time is spent on review of material that should be a prerequisite to the course.
ReplyDeleteI also work with students (some) who have little to no access to some of the technologies that I do. I'm very interested to read what you come up with!
I think this is a great educational concern to research and can benefit schools trying to reach AYP when standardized tests are given after the "summer loss" of understanding. As Webberd pointed out, we spend much of the beginning of the school year (and after long breaks) reviewing and reteaching the concepts students should already have a grasp on. I look forward to seeing how technology might enhance their learning!
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your comments & suggestions! I recently read an article on the Top 50 Inventions of 2009 and it mentioned the "School of One" summer school pilot program - have you heard anything about this?
ReplyDeleteSummer learning loss is definitely a huge problem in schools, especially for those students who don’t have access to computers and books at home during the summer. In a book I was recently reading called “Outliers” a sociologist Karl Alexander from Johns Hopkins University tracked the progress of 650 first graders from the Baltimore public schools broken down by socioeconomic class using the California Achievement Tests. The interesting part is that be compared the scores from the beginning of the year in September, then again in June, then again the following September after summer vacation. The results are pretty amazing and it definitely shows how students from lower socioeconomic classes are at a huge disadvantage at the beginning of the new school year.
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