The summer slide is starting this week for most Ohio students.
But it’s not the slippery steel slope kids enjoy on the playground. It’s the downward slide of skills, especially reading skills, that affects all children when they stop learning.
They start sliding backward. Children can lose two to three months in reading skills over the summer. The drop is especially pernicious for kids in K-3 grades who must learn to read so they are better prepared in fourth grade to read to learn.
The longer summer lasts, the more most children slide, and disadvantaged children are sentenced to the steepest downward slope, lacking the adult-led interactions and nontraditional, but effective learning opportunities that their well-off peers experience.
These opportunities include frequent reading with a parent, weekly trips to libraries, and the availability of dozens or hundreds of books in the home.
Thanks in large part to the summer slide, fewer than 40% of Ohio fourth graders are proficient in reading.
Sadly, the Ohio state legislature will soon debate a new bill designed to make the problem worse.
Introduced by a senator from Lorain County, the bill will greatly benefit Cedar Point and Kings Island amusement parks, which are dependent upon high school students for summer help. The bill will allow students still in high school to extend their availability to work beyond the end of summer. This will allow families to continue spending money at the parks into September.
Setting up the milk bottles at the arcade or hawking cotton candy might be a good summer gig. However, the ramifications of extending a student’s availability to work such a job — and extending the summer break which causes students to fall further behind in learning — may result in this being the only “career” that student can aspire to.
The introduction of this bill would only make the summer slide more closely resemble the steep drops at the Cedar Point roller coasters.
P.S. I’m visiting Germany and Austria this week, where reading skills are much higher. And summer break is only six weeks long.
Mzunguko wa majira ya joto unaanza wiki hii kwa wanafunzi wengi wa Ohio. Lakini si mteremko wa chuma wenye kuteleza ambao watoto hufurahia kwenye uwanja wa michezo. Ni kushuka kwa ujuzi, hasa ujuzi wa kusoma, ambao huathiri watoto wote wanapoacha kujifunza. Wanaanza kuteleza nyuma. Watoto wanaweza kupoteza miezi miwili hadi mitatu katika ujuzi wa kusoma wakati wa kiangazi. Hii ni kwa sababu watoto wa darasa la K3 wanajifunza kusoma na kusoma kwa sababu wana uwezo wa kusoma. Wakati wa kiangazi, watoto wengi huanguka, na watoto walio katika hali mbaya wanahukumiwa kushuka kwa mwinuko, wakikosa mwingiliano ulioongozwa na watu wazima na fursa za kujifunza zisizo za kawaida lakini zenye ufanisi ambazo wenzao wenye utajiri hupata. Hii inahusisha kusoma mara kwa mara na mzazi, kwenda maktaba kila wiki, na kuwa na vitabu vingi nyumbani. Kwa sababu ya hali ya hewa ya majira ya joto, zaidi ya asilimia 40 ya wanafunzi wa darasa la nne katika jimbo la Ohio wana uwezo wa kusoma. Kwa kusikitisha, bunge la jimbo la Ohio hivi karibuni litazungumzia muswada mpya ulioundwa ili kuifanya tatizo hilo liwe mbaya zaidi. Mkataba huo wa mwaka huu wa sheria unaoongozwa na Seneta wa Kaunti ya Lorain, utasaidia sana Cedar Point na Kings Island, mbuga za burudani ambazo zinategemea wanafunzi wa shule za sekondari kwa msaada wa majira ya joto. Sheria hiyo itawawezesha wanafunzi ambao bado wako katika shule ya sekondari kupanua upatikanaji wao wa kufanya kazi baada ya mwisho wa majira ya joto. Hii itaruhusu familia kuendelea kutumia pesa katika mbuga hadi Septemba. Kuweka chupa za maziwa kwenye uwanja wa michezo au kuuza sukari ya pamba inaweza kuwa kazi nzuri ya majira ya joto. Hata hivyo, matokeo ya kupanua upatikanaji wa mwanafunzi kufanya kazi kama hiyo <unk> na kupanua mapumziko ya majira ya joto ambayo husababisha wanafunzi kuanguka nyuma zaidi katika kujifunza <unk> inaweza kusababisha hii kuwa <unk> kazi <unk> tu kwamba mwanafunzi anaweza kutamani. Utangazaji wa muswada huu tu kufanya slide majira ya joto zaidi karibu kufanana matone makali katika Cedar Point roller coasters. P.S. Mimi nina kutembelea Ujerumani na Austria wiki hii, ambapo ujuzi wa kusoma ni juu sana. Na mapumziko ya kiangazi ni ya majuma sita tu.