Scott Groza: Tips for Preventing Summer Learning Loss

In the minds of so many California students, the months of summer are viewed as a time to relax and unwind following the close of another school year. After working so hard to achieve their individual academic goals, it is not exactly easy to argue with the carefree mindset so many adopt once the school year ends.

Even so, there is an abundance of research demonstrating the potential for academic regression during the summer months, resulting in a phenomenon known as the “summer slide.” Some students regress more than others during these summer months, and it is indeed possible to take steps to prevent the possibility of academic regression while still taking advantage of the seasonal opportunity to relax and unwind.

It’s important to focus on the areas in which academic regression is most likely occur, and though there are quite a few areas in which students tend to slip during the summer, reading is far and away the most vulnerable of them all. It is for this reason that summer reading programs -- including those made available through local public libraries, for example -- play such an important role in preventing the so-called “summer slide.”

For some students, especially those who already enjoy reading on their own, merely emphasizing the importance of engaging in literary pursuits during the summer months can be enough to combat the possibility of academic regression. For others, however, a greater level of structure might be necessary to ensure the progress made during the previous school year is not lost to the summer sun. In cases such as these, a Mar Vista tutoring program focused on reading could prove to be of exceptional benefit once the summer comes to a close and the school year again begins anew.

Of course, every student is different and surely possesses unique strengths and weakness when it comes to academic pursuits. So even though academic progress in reading is most likely to be an area of vulnerability during the summer, it is nonetheless necessary for parents and students to work together to identify specific areas of focus for the gap between one school year and the next.

Potential summer focus areas can be identified with the help of the previous year’s teachers or through the use of diagnostic testing, both of which can help pinpoint a student’s individual strengths and weakness. With a clear understanding of the academic areas most in need of improvement, it becomes much easier to tailor a specific plan of action that ensures substantial progress is made during the months in which so many others are taking steps back rather than forward.