Curtis Smith (Education)
2013-2014
“Summer Learning Erosion in Low Income/Urban School Districts: The “Summer Slide”
Executive Summary
American students fare poorly on international comparisons of student achievement and threatens the country’s ability to thrive in a global economy. Nationally, achievement scores in reading are the lowest since 1972 and despite more than a decade of intense effort to improve the instructional process, the achievement gap between black and white students is growing. Why? Because the sole focus on improving achievement has been on what happens during the school year (“schooling”) and ignoring what happens over the summer (“summer slide”). The slide particularly impacts students from low income families (“poor students”) and accounts for up to 67 -80% of the achievement gap between rich and poor. An increasing proportion of our students come from low income families, so the gap will only grow and total scores will continue to decline. A major factor in changing all this is to turn the focus of school improvement to addressing the Summer Slide.
RESEARCH PRODUCT:
Dr. Smith has submitted an essay with the above title to be published in the forthcoming journal:
St. Louis Currents: Facing Regional Issues at 250
Editors: Terry Jones (UMSL Emeritus) and Andy Theising (IUR Senior Research Fellow)
Partners: FOCUS St. Louis, St. Louis Metropolitan Research Exchange STLMRE, and SIUE
Publication Date: Spring 2015
Dr. Smith’s research is ongoing.
Contact Dr. Smith: csmith@siue.edu
