Education & summer break
I thought it very interesting to read the research by Karl Alexander about the cumulative gap that occurs for students based on social/economic class. While his study is extremely small and there is a chance it is not generalizable, I think that it fits with what we know about the academic differences based on class. Poor children are more likely to start school with a gap and life continues to exacerbate that gap.
see study at
http://www.asanet.org/galleries/default-file/April07ASRFeature.pdf
As a school social worker it makes a strong case for advocating for changes in our system. Possibly for a different kind of school year: one with shorter breaks that occur more frequently, so that perhaps children go to school for 3 months and have 3 weeks off and 3 months and 3 weeks off. Or perhaps there need to be more free summer programs that combine academics with additional life opportunities (that children growing up in poverty may not have as much access to).
Comments