Summer Learning Loss
Fight the Summer Slide with Brain Chase
If you’re like most parents, you know that summer vacation takes a toll on learning. Simply put, most students lose ground academically over the summer. Writing skills decline, math facts fade away, and it’s hard for parents to be consistent about helping their children keep learning. In fact, summers are arguably one of the least recognized yet most important causal factors for underachievement in schools.
This 2011 RAND study found that by the end of summer, students perform, on average, one month behind where they left off in the spring. Sadly, this loss disproportionately affects low-income students. Most disturbing is that the loss is cumulative; students fall farther behind each year as a result of summer break.
We created the Brain Chase Summer Learning Challenge to help students in grades 2?8 stay smart over the summer. The Challenge motivates students to dive into just enough reading, writing, math, and projects each week for six weeks to keep them sharp. Summer learning loss is a big problem—but it doesn’t have to be. The first Brain Chase begins at 9am EST on June 30, 2014. Watch the trailer here, and click here to see how it works.