Students in the United States need to spend more time in school. If they do not, they will not master the increasingly complex skills they need to compete for jobs in the global economy of the twenty-first century. How can they achieve this? To start, they should continue their formal education during the summer. I realize that what I am suggesting goes against tradition and will certainly raise some vociferous objections. But in a recent televison interview on the Today show, even President Obama agreed! Keep in mind that while many U.S. students fritter away their summer vacations in unsupervised, unproductive, and unhealthy activities, students in other countries are hard at work—and they will be rewarded in the end. Just consider this hypothetical, but all-too-familiar situation. It’s June. The final day of the school year arrives. Cheering students tear out of the building and never look back. The very next day, while we, their hard-working parents, toil away at jobs, these students sleep until noon. When they finally wake up, what do they do? They surf the Internet or play hours of mind-numbing video games (often violent ones) because no one is there to stop them. Or they plop onto living room couches and view hours of mediocre television programming while texting friends and munching unhealthy snacks. Or they meet their peers at local hangouts and, out of sheer boredom, do things they shouldn’t do and go places they shouldn’t go, until one day they find themselves in trouble they never imagined they’d be in. This is the unfortunate pattern
of many middle school students’ summer lives. They turn into couch potatoes, video-game addicts, and aimless Internet surfers until June turns to July, July turns to August, and finally—thank goodness—it’s time for them to unplug the electronics, get out the schoolbooks, and plug in their brains again.
“Every week that students are not in school, they are forgetting some of the facts, strategies, and skills they learned.”
Some traditionalists will argue that children need downtime to recharge their batteries, but do they really need more than two months of rest? The school year as it currently exists was based on a time in the nineteenth century when schoolchildren were needed to work the family farm come summertime. Well, times and needs have changed considerably. It’s the twenty-first century. There are very few family farms left in this country. Child psychologists consistently argue that children who have structure in their lives are happier, healthier, and better- behaved. The weekday routine of school provides that structure, stability, and discipline. Teachers are powerful role models
and mentors. They challenge students to use their minds, ask questions, and take intellectual risks. In the absence of teachers’ positive influence, many students take different kinds of risks. They are more likely to succumb to peer pressure, falling under the influence of “friends” who may or may not have their best interests at heart. Do most children read during the summer? Do they inquire, investigate, and think critically? Do they review the math, science, and social studies lessons they learned during the school year? I think you know the answer.
Yes, many of us parents limit our children’s video, television, and Internet time. And yes, many of us demand
that our children read books during the summer. But even these children lose
knowledge and skills during the long summer break. Every week that students
are not in school, they are forgetting some of the facts, strategies, and skills they
learned. “Summer learning loss,” as it is called, is a
documented phenomenon. An analysis of thirty-nine summer learning loss studies by Cooper, Nye, Charleton, Lyndsay, and Greathouse was published in the Review of Educational Research in 1996. The studies showed that summer learning loss equaled at least one month of instruction as measured by standardized test scores. Students scored significantly lower on standardized tests at the end of summer vacation than they did on the same tests taken at the beginning of the summer. The studies also showed that math was affected more than reading. Researchers believe this may
be so because math requires factual and procedural knowledge. These skills can be easily forgotten without continued practice.
Summer learning loss happens to all students: high achievers and those who struggle. And because students lose so much factual and procedural knowledge during their summer vacations away from school, they lose additional time during
the following school year, too. When September finally comes around, these couch potatoes, video-game addicts, and aimless Internet surfers must spend precious classroom and teacher time reviewing the knowledge they have lost over the summer before they can begin to master any new knowledge and skills. Instead of focusing on new skills, teachers typically dedicate a full month to reviewing the skills students forgot over the summer. That one month of learning loss adds up over the life of a student to nearly a year and half of instruction—and students fall further and further behind their peers in other countries who spend more days in school each year. Compare U.S. students with those from other countries and you will see how dire the situation is. The United States ranked fifteenth in reading literacy out of 27 countries belonging to
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The United States ranked twenty-first out of 30 OECD countries in scientific literacy. These figures should alarm everyone who cares about our children’s future.
Why are students from other countries scoring so much higher than U.S. students? One reason is that they benefit from far more rigorous educational systems. Look at the data on the chart below. Japanese students attend school 243 days per year! In comparison, U.S. students sit in their school classrooms only 180 days per year. It’s no wonder that Japan ranked third in scientific literacy. Students in other countries don’t seem to suffer from shorter vacations. Instead, they thrive. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a system of international assessments that evaluates the academic performance of fifteen-year-olds from many countries in reading literacy,
math, and science. Examine the table on page 14, which shows the achievement scores of students in each discipline. Start at the top of each column and read down. Keep going. You will need to look very far down each column to find the United States. Are you surprised—and maybe even alarmed—to discover that the United States isn’t even close to the top?
But think about it. It isn’t so surprising that U.S. students perform so poorly when they attend school so much less
than students in other countries. The situation has grave consequences for the future. Growth occupations in the twenty- first century include the computer, mathematical, technical, and health care fields. These occupations require that students have strong math and science skills in addition to solid literacy skills. If U.S. students want to compete for these jobs, they will have to meet tough standards. In today’s global economy, our students are not just competing with other U.S. students for employment opportunities. They are competing with students from around the
world. And students from other countries are outperforming them dramatically. There is a solution. People just need to embrace it. Some schools already have. They have awakened to the problem
at hand, and they have responded. They have become expanded-time schools. Some of these schools have lengthened their instructional days. Other schools have added days to their school calendar, severely limiting summer vacations.
Many parents are opposed to cutting summer vacation time. They argue that kids need time away from their studies in order to be ready to focus intently on schoolwork in the fall. But studies show that more time spent in the classroom correlates directly with higher achievement scores. According to a report from the California State Department of Education, standardized reading test scores for grade school kids rose 19.3 percent when they were schooled year-round. Being in the classroom longer clearly allows students to maintain the focus on their studies.
So what is the United States waiting for? Do we want our students to compete internationally, or don’t we? We need
to tell those couch potatoes, video-game addicts, and aimless Internet surfers to turn off the TVs and power down their screens. We need to get past the old-fashioned idea that kids need so much downtime. Goofing off just makes them forget the things they need to know. Parents and teachers owe their children a fighting chance to succeed in the increasingly competitive twenty-first-century economy. Add more days to the school year. Keep students focused on learning. In the long run, they will be the ones who will thank you the most