Counteracting Summer Slide: Social Capital Resources Within Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Families

Abstract

Research on summer learning has shown that children from a higher socioeconomic status (SES) continue to learn during the summer months of elementary school, but lower-SES students tend to stagnate or lose ground. However, not all low-SES students experience summer learning loss. Drawing on the Beginning School Study (BSS), a longitudinal study of a random sample of Baltimore public school students who began first grade in 1982, this article identifies a small sample of low-SES students who gained as much as their higher-SES peers in reading or math during at least three of the four summers of elementary school. Drawing on Coleman and Hoffer's (1987) theory of within-family social capital, we identify parental characteristics and practices that set these low-SES exceptional summer learners (ESLs) apart from their low-SES peers, who evidence the more typical pattern of summer slide.

Notes

¹To verify that the mean is the most appropriate measure of central tendency for comparing CAT scores and summer growth across groups, we calculated deltas for each value by subtracting the median from the mean and then dividing by the standard deviation. Results indicated that the mean and median are nearly identical for all but two of the values analyzed: (a) reading CAT scores for the fall of first grade among ESLs, which yielded a delta of 0.21, and (b) math ESLs’ summer gains in the summer after first grade, which yielded a delta of 0.28. In both instances, the median is higher than the mean, indicating that a few low ESL scores are driving the mean values down. Upon investigating the distribution of scores among ESLs in these two variables, we discerned that only a handful of students are skewing the mean. Seven of 43 reading ESLs score greater than one standard deviation below the mean on the entry reading test, while 8 of 54 math ESLs score more than a standard deviation below the mean in their first summer.

²The delta comparing the mean and median of ESLs’ reading scores upon leaving elementary school is fairly large at 0.24, with the median exceeding the mean. Comparing medians, ESLs’ final reading score is 478 points, while high-SES students score a median of 535. Regardless of the metric used, high-SES students complete elementary school ahead of their ESL peers in reading.

³Interestingly, the ESLs in both reading and math lag behind their low-SES peers on average for school-year gains. While this could be an artifact of regression toward the mean, it seems unlikely given that the ESLs register greater than expected summer gains over at least three summers, a fairly rigorous bar for “exceptional” summer learning each summer.

Note. M = mean. HS = high school. ESL = Exceptional Summer Learners.

Note. SES = Socioeconomic status.

^a Parent read to child yesterday coded as: 0 =not at all, 1 =10 min, 2 =20 min, 3 =30 min, 4 =1 hr, 5 =more than an hour, and 6 =child read to self or parent.

*p < 0.05 using chi-square tests to compare ESLs and other low SES students.

Note. ^a Amount of kindergarten attended coded as: 1 =none; 2 =half day, half year; 3 =half day, full year; and 4 =full day, full year.

*p < 0.05 using chi-square tests to compare ESLs and other low SES students.

^a Parent educational expectation is coded as: 1 = less than high school, 2 = high school graduate, 3 = trade school, 4 = some college, 5 = college graduate, and 6 = college +.

^b Parent's assessment of student's relative ability coded as: 1 = much worse, 2 = a little worse, 3 = same, 4 = a little better, and 5 = much better than other students.