Professors Solórzano and Krashen: Student Empowerment through Culture and Language by Robert D. Skeels on Scribd
SKrashen: Stop the Summer Slide by Investing in Libraries
Sent to US News and World Report, June 18, 2015 There is an obvious, inexpensive and very effective way to deal with summer learning loss not mentioned in "Stop the Summer Slide" (June 16, Knowledge Bank): Provide more access to interesting reading material.
Research tells us that those living in poverty have the least access to books and also show the most summer loss, and that those who read more over the summer make better gains in reading achievement.
Let's invest in libraries filled with books and other kinds of material that students will read, as well as librarians who will help children find what is right for them. We are living in a golden age of literature for young people; let's take advantage of it.
Stephen Krashen
Professor Emeritus
University of Southern California
Original article: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/2015/06/16/summer-slide-is-bad-for-students
Sources:
Poverty and access to books:
Summer loss and poverty, more reading and gains:
First published on @ THE CHALK FACE on June 6, 2014
Providing more access to interesting reading material by investing in public libraries and librarians is an excellent way to deal with summer learning loss. — Dr. Stephen D. Krashen
Let's talk about serendipity. This morning at teacher sent me a Haertel paper on the unreliability of Value Added Measures, and I saw a figure in the paper on "summer learning loss" that started me working on an infographic. After creating the graphic and the corresponding tweet, I noticed that Dr. Paul Thomas had tweeted a new post by Professor Krashen on essentially the same topic entitled: Arne Duncan suggests year-round school as a solution to the summer slide. I disagree. It may well be that it was pure chance, but it's probably because school (at least LAUSD) was wrapping up this week.
Krashen's Solutions Work!
Professor Stephen Krashen and colleagues have repeatedly proven that both access to books, and ameliorating the effects of poverty are critical in addressing so-called achievement gaps. Neoliberal corporate education reform's wrongheaded assertion that we need to lengthen the school year ignores these indisputable facts, as emphatically illustrated by differences in the table (Haertel 17) above:
Dr. @skrashen's proven reforms to preempt "summer learning loss." Address poverty, and ensure access to books! #LAUSD pic.twitter.com/d3oPORVZpF
— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) June 6, 2014
