| Description |
During the school year, learning occurs at virtually the same rate for all students, regardless of factors such as socio-economic status (SES). There are, however, differences in retention over the summer months based on a variety of factors. This study compared students involved in enriching summer activities during the summer to those who were not, in terms of their academic success, measured by 1) the California Achievement Test (CAT) standardized test scores in reading and math; 2) grade retention; and 3) high school graduation rates. OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) regression was used to test whether students involved in enriching activities during one summer (or multiple summers) performed better on their CATs than those who were not. This study did not demonstrate consistent support for student involvement with summer activities, but involvement in structured summer programs was found to help decrease summer learning loss. Specifically, involvement in summer camp had consistent positive effects on all forms of academic success. Logistic regression was performed to test the hypotheses that being involved in enriching activities would reduce the likelihood of being held back a grade, and would also increase a student's likeliness to graduate from high school. Consistent with the literature, we found that the higher the students' SES, the less likely they were to be held back a grade, and students who attended summer school were more likely to graduate from high school. Contrary to expectations, students coming from single parent households were more likely to graduate from high school. One finding that was unclear and deserves greater attention was that students who took books home from the library were less likely to graduate from high school. Clearly, more research is needed to understand factors related to student success. Several lines of inquiry remain. For instance, it would be beneficial to examine the quality and quantity of the student's involvement in summer activities in order to understand what contributes to, or hinders, the academic success of students. |
