BACKGROUND
Stem the Slide™ is a series of initiatives focusing on educational inequities caused by the tendency for students to lose some of the achievement gains made during the previous school year, a phenomenon known as the summer slide. The concept of the summer slide has been on researchers’ radar since at least 1996, when one of the first comprehensive studies on the phenomenon was published. The study showed that kids lose significant knowledge in reading and math over summer break, which tends to have a snowball effect as they experience subsequent skill loss each year. Children from low-income families are disproportionately affected by the summer slide, in ways that can affect them years into their education. Younger children are prone to the most learning loss because they are at a crucial stage in their development.
The educational gap is widening
Technology is one example where students are particularly hard hit. A recent study showed families in the low-income neighborhood of Watts, Boyle Heights, and South Los Angeles struggled to get online, with at least 16% of students lacking basic internet access. Another survey conducted March 24 through April 4 recorded other areas of concern: 15% of families reported that students had not yet been in contact with teachers, and 25% of students were required to print out assignments at home but lacked a computer.
New research suggests that by September, most students will have fallen behind where they would have been if they were in classrooms, with some losing the equivalent of a full school year of academic gains.
