![\"Summer](\"https:\/\/media.education.uconn.edu\/aurora\/neag\/2015\/08\/ThinkstockPhotos-494378417-a-400x267.jpg\")
Researchers Betsy McCoach, professor in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, and Neag School alum Karen Rambo-Hernandez \u201911 Ph.D., now assistant professor at West Virginia University, set out to examine the extent to which school impacts students\u2019 levels of reading achievement over time.<\/p>\n
With access to national data for a population of more than 170,000 students from 2,000 schools, McCoach and Rambo-Hernandez compared students whose reading test scores at the start of third grade ranked in the top 2 percent \u2013 a group designated as \u201cinitially high-achieving students\u201d \u2013 with those students whose reading test scores at the start of third grade were among the average.<\/p>\n
Using test-score data that followed these two groups over three-and-a-half years \u2013 from the start of third grade to the start of sixth grade \u2013 the researchers were able to track the progress of each group over time in the subject of reading. These data sets allowed them not only to see how kids grew in reading during each subsequent school year, but also how their level of reading achievement was affected over each summer. That way, they could understand the impact, if any, of \u201csummer slide\u201d \u2013 the widely accepted notion that many schoolchildren tend to regress in some subject areas over the summer break.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf [the high achievers] had\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0been in school, they would have achieved the same rate of growth in reading.\u201d<\/h3>\n\u2014Karen Rambo-Hernandez \u201911 Ph.D.,
\nNeag School\u00a0alum\u00a0and co-author of study<\/em><\/h3>\n\u201cKnowing how students grow over the summer allows researchers to understand more directly how time in school is changing the academic growth trajectories of students,\u201d Rambo-Hernandez and McCoach state in the study, published in\u00a0The Journal of Educational Research<\/em>.<\/p>\nWith this information, Rambo-Hernandez says, \u201cWe could compare what was happening during summer with what was happening during the school year, and look at those growth rates.\u201d<\/p>\n
12 Months of Summer Vacation > School?
\n<\/strong>Given that the initially high-achieving students were starting out ahead of the average-achieving students when it came to reading ability, the expectation was that they were likely to demonstrate comparatively slower growth in reading during the school year than the average achievers, who would presumably have more room for improvement. The researchers also hypothesized that high-achieving students would demonstrate greater growth in reading over each summer as compared with their average-achieving peers, who had started off at lower achievement levels in the subject.<\/p>\n![\"Summer](\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\")
<\/a>Time spent in school may in fact have virtually no impact on the reading achievement of high-achieving students, according to research from Professor Betsy McCoach and Neag School alum Karen Rambo-Hernandez \u201911 Ph.D. (The Journal of Educational Research, Volume 108, Issue 2, 2015)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAccording to the results, the average-achieving students\u2019 reading growth did experience a boost during the school year and then stagnation over each summer break. School, as may be expected, seemed to enhance the reading achievement of the average students over time.<\/p>\n
High-achieving students, meanwhile, though they continued to outperform average students, did in fact grow more slowly in reading than their average-achieving peers during the school year \u2013 as the researchers had anticipated. However, the high-achievers went on to maintain that same slow rate of progress in reading over the course of each summer, too.<\/p>\n
In other words, \u201cif [the high achievers] had\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0been in school, they would have achieved the same rate of growth in reading,\u201d Rambo-Hernandez says \u2013 the implication being, as the study states, that \u201c12 months of summer vacation would be as effective as attending school for these students, at least in terms of reading achievement.\u201d<\/p>\nSo while the above-average students did not experience so-called \u201csummer slide,\u201d they appeared to \u201cgrow at the same rate whether they were in school or not,\u201d McCoach says.<\/p>\n
Partnering With Teachers
\n<\/strong>If, as the findings suggest, attending school for most of the year has virtually no impact on reading achievement for high-achieving students, what can parents be expected to do?<\/p>\n\u201cTo me, the takeaway is you have to advocate for your kids, and you have to really know what is going on in the classroom,\u201d McCoach says. \u201cYou have to try to ensure that they are getting appropriate instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n
She acknowledges that this may not always be easy, but recommends that parents approach this as a partnership with the teacher. \u201cEvery kid has a right to learn something new in school every day. I think when you frame it that way, maybe teachers and school administrators will listen,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not about: \u2018Look at how great my kid is; you need to do more.\u2019 It\u2019s about: \u2018My child already knows what you\u2019re about to teach. What can we do about that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The issue, however, extends even beyond ensuring greater achievement in reading, according to Rambo-Hernandez, who previously served as a schoolteacher for 10 years. \u201cWe are doing a disservice if we put these students in classrooms and we are OK with not challenging them,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen they run into difficulties, I want them to know how to overcome them. If they\u2019re not running into those difficulties, they\u2019re not developing that skill set of grit, resilience, and persistence in difficulty. We need to make sure that they are getting an education that encourages them to tackle difficult problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Going forward, McCoach says the study\u2019s findings raise additional questions that could warrant further investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big question that isn\u2019t answered by this study is: Why? Why is it that these [high-achieving students] are growing at the same rate in the school year and in the summer?\u201d she says. \u201cThe next step would be trying to find out: What is happening in schools, and what is happening during the summer? Are some schools better at serving high-ability students? And what are they doing? That, I think, would be really helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The full research study is accessible online\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n[1]<\/a>\u00a0Rambo-Hernandez, K. E., &\u00a0McCoach, D. B.<\/a>\u00a0(2015).\u00a0High-Achieving and Average Students\u2019 Reading Growth: Contrasting School and Summer Trajectories<\/a>.\u00a0The Journal of Educational Research<\/em><\/a>, 108:2, 112-129.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Does school matter? Most anyone\u2019s response would be, unequivocally, yes. And yet startling results from a recent research study suggest that, depending on the ability of the student, the answer may not be quite so clear-cut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2428,1855,2076],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1878],"class_list":["post-202782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational-psychology","category-neag","category-research"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 13:57:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202783,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202782\/revisions\/202783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202782"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=202782"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=202782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNeag School\u00a0alum\u00a0and co-author of study<\/em><\/h3>\n
\u201cKnowing how students grow over the summer allows researchers to understand more directly how time in school is changing the academic growth trajectories of students,\u201d Rambo-Hernandez and McCoach state in the study, published in\u00a0The Journal of Educational Research<\/em>.<\/p>\n With this information, Rambo-Hernandez says, \u201cWe could compare what was happening during summer with what was happening during the school year, and look at those growth rates.\u201d<\/p>\n 12 Months of Summer Vacation > School? According to the results, the average-achieving students\u2019 reading growth did experience a boost during the school year and then stagnation over each summer break. School, as may be expected, seemed to enhance the reading achievement of the average students over time.<\/p>\n High-achieving students, meanwhile, though they continued to outperform average students, did in fact grow more slowly in reading than their average-achieving peers during the school year \u2013 as the researchers had anticipated. However, the high-achievers went on to maintain that same slow rate of progress in reading over the course of each summer, too.<\/p>\n In other words, \u201cif [the high achievers] had\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0been in school, they would have achieved the same rate of growth in reading,\u201d Rambo-Hernandez says \u2013 the implication being, as the study states, that \u201c12 months of summer vacation would be as effective as attending school for these students, at least in terms of reading achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n So while the above-average students did not experience so-called \u201csummer slide,\u201d they appeared to \u201cgrow at the same rate whether they were in school or not,\u201d McCoach says.<\/p>\n Partnering With Teachers \u201cTo me, the takeaway is you have to advocate for your kids, and you have to really know what is going on in the classroom,\u201d McCoach says. \u201cYou have to try to ensure that they are getting appropriate instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n She acknowledges that this may not always be easy, but recommends that parents approach this as a partnership with the teacher. \u201cEvery kid has a right to learn something new in school every day. I think when you frame it that way, maybe teachers and school administrators will listen,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not about: \u2018Look at how great my kid is; you need to do more.\u2019 It\u2019s about: \u2018My child already knows what you\u2019re about to teach. What can we do about that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The issue, however, extends even beyond ensuring greater achievement in reading, according to Rambo-Hernandez, who previously served as a schoolteacher for 10 years. \u201cWe are doing a disservice if we put these students in classrooms and we are OK with not challenging them,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen they run into difficulties, I want them to know how to overcome them. If they\u2019re not running into those difficulties, they\u2019re not developing that skill set of grit, resilience, and persistence in difficulty. We need to make sure that they are getting an education that encourages them to tackle difficult problems.\u201d<\/p>\n Going forward, McCoach says the study\u2019s findings raise additional questions that could warrant further investigation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe big question that isn\u2019t answered by this study is: Why? Why is it that these [high-achieving students] are growing at the same rate in the school year and in the summer?\u201d she says. \u201cThe next step would be trying to find out: What is happening in schools, and what is happening during the summer? Are some schools better at serving high-ability students? And what are they doing? That, I think, would be really helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n The full research study is accessible online\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n [1]<\/a>\u00a0Rambo-Hernandez, K. E., &\u00a0McCoach, D. B.<\/a>\u00a0(2015).\u00a0High-Achieving and Average Students\u2019 Reading Growth: Contrasting School and Summer Trajectories<\/a>.\u00a0The Journal of Educational Research<\/em><\/a>, 108:2, 112-129.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Does school matter? Most anyone\u2019s response would be, unequivocally, yes. And yet startling results from a recent research study suggest that, depending on the ability of the student, the answer may not be quite so clear-cut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2428,1855,2076],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1878],"class_list":["post-202782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational-psychology","category-neag","category-research"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 13:57:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202783,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202782\/revisions\/202783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202782"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=202782"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=202782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>Given that the initially high-achieving students were starting out ahead of the average-achieving students when it came to reading ability, the expectation was that they were likely to demonstrate comparatively slower growth in reading during the school year than the average achievers, who would presumably have more room for improvement. The researchers also hypothesized that high-achieving students would demonstrate greater growth in reading over each summer as compared with their average-achieving peers, who had started off at lower achievement levels in the subject.<\/p>\n![\"Summer](\"https:\/\/media.education.uconn.edu\/aurora\/neag\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-08-07-at-1.50.28-PM-400x234.png\")
<\/a>
\n<\/strong>If, as the findings suggest, attending school for most of the year has virtually no impact on reading achievement for high-achieving students, what can parents be expected to do?<\/p>\n