School's out. For Arkansas' roughly 480,000 school-age children, that means summer vacation is in full swing.
Some have jobs during June and July, at which they'll learn valuable lessons about responsibility, money and work-force discipline. Some will travel and learn about other places, peoples and cultures. Some will go off to camps and learn about teamwork around common interests and goal-setting.
For those students, summer is not a break from learning, but merely a respite from the organized school-day regimen. But for other students, summer vacation will do more harm than good: They'll forget some of what they learned last year.
They'll sleep late, crack nary a book and develop lazy habits (video games versus chores? no contest). They may even get into the inevitable trouble that arises when youngsters have too much free time and not enough to do.
When school starts back in August, they'll be behind where they were when it let out in May. While they may have been formally "promoted" to the next grade, these students will be functionally "held back," as their lagging achievement test scores over time will show.
The distressing "summer slide's" disparate effects tend to fall along racial and economic lines, indicating a necessary departure from a "one size fits all" mentality for solutions.
Year-round schooling in some manner is an idea whose time is probably long overdue, especially for largely unsupervised students from poorer and more urban families.
In neighboring Tennessee, Shelby County proponents additionally claim children are safer in schools than on the loose in poverty-heavy Memphis neighborhoods where crime spikes in summer.
Maybe a meritocratic approach makes the most sense, since some schools and students are doing just fine. Closing a gap requires variable, unequal gains among those furthest behind.
Instead of stretching the normal school calendar across the summer, bookend June and July with shorter breaks and populate those two months primarily with "learning aid" programs. This could be a more robust academic version of the "continuous learning calendar" a few Arkansas schools are experimenting with.
Every student can benefit from becoming a better learner, so high performers looking for the best ACT scores and college scholarships may voluntarily participate. For those students or schools that are behind or failing, participation is mandatory.
One of the most meaningful programs I experienced in school was in study hall in the eighth grade, when our adviser unveiled a new "speed reading" machine.
I liked the idea of reducing the time needed for reading homework, so I signed up. The apparatus was crude by today's technology standards--it had a viewfinder through which a page was seen, with an aperture device that could narrow the field of vision down to a paragraph or a line of text.
Every other day for the better part of a semester, I was trained and tested at reading faster and faster. The aperture opened wider, and clicked quicker, as time went on. After each session I had to successfully pass quizzes on content before I could advance to the next level. When it was over, I had a gift that has given for a lifetime: the skill of skimming with comprehension.
If we instituted "Summer Learning Skill Shops," it would help kids of all stripes: those that need to catch up and get to grade level, and those seeking to become true speed-readers.
All would also benefit from learning better study habits in general: how to take notes, research subjects, prepare for quizzes, organize assignments, and so forth.
Maybe it's not a full 8-to-3 school schedule, but rather a truncated one to accommodate more free time and extracurricular opportunities during summer's stretched-out afternoons. Some year-round schools have partnered with local organizations like the YMCA to structure activities.
Perhaps that aspect varies with the school and its test scores.
Summer learning would also be a perfect time to integrate a nation-leading innovation for Arkansas: a grade-appropriate Constitution class every year for every student.
Preserving the republic requires a thorough understanding of and appreciation for our principles and processes of self-government. A summer class of that nature would be ideal: Encompassing Independence Day, it would offer a deep-dive study of the Declaration of Independence, and also roughly replicate the time frame during which the Constitutional Convention was in session.
Imagine Arkansas students every summer following along with the thoughts, debates and footsteps of our nation's founders! Learning not only the whats and whens that basic history courses teach, but also the intricate hows and whys and the context and contrast of all the characters and states.
Obviously, any sort of summer workshop/education program will cost more, but also deliver more.
Two elementary schools in Kansas City, Mo., have seen performance levels leap after four years of year-round learning. One of the principals reported "radical progress" within the first two years, as her school went from the bottom 15th percentile in the state to performing in the top third of its district.
Many Arkansas students need radical progress in their learning. This would be one way of creating a real chance for leap-frog-level improvement.
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Dana D. Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.
Editorial on 06/15/2018