School holidays around the world: do they affect pupil performance?
An expat teacher in America considers the pros and cons of those summer weeks off on children's' long-term learning
By Mary McCarney
10:07AM BST 03 Jul 2015
There’s a wooden plaque hanging in our basement, inscribed with the words: "Three reasons for teaching: June, July, August." Yes, as a teacher in America, I’m currently enjoying the enviable perk of the ten to eleven week long summer holiday. However, school breaks and the amount of time spent in the classroom vary widely around the world.
In Britain and the US, the school calendar is rooted in agriculture, as historically children were needed to help with planting and harvesting crops. Today, with many parents working full-time, juggling the logistics and practicalities of childcare is often an expensive and difficult struggle, especially during the long summer break. There is also mounting evidence in America of summer learning loss. Research indicates that by the end of summer, pupils perform on average, one month behind where they left off in the spring, and this “gap” in learning disproportionately affects students from low-income families.
While he was UK Education Secretary, Michael Gove called for a rethink on long breaks, and last year, the National Association of Headteachers debated scrapping the traditional six-week summer holiday.
Comparisons with other countries and their high performing education systems are often made.
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Chinese schools in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei, which consistently top the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) world ranking tables, have summer holidays of approximately one month (this varies by region), and Chinese pupils often spend their breaks attending additional classes or studying for exams. Students in the United States only attend school on average 180 days a year, and in the UK for 190 days, compared with an OECD average of 195 days, and 208 days in East Asian countries.
But while the “summer slide” in learning is a major concern, research hasfailed to prove a significant link between the length of the school year and academic achievement. Finland has both one of the shortest school years (with a ten to eleven week summer break) and some of the best test results in international education rankings.
In the UK, independent schools traditionally have longer holidays and a shorter school year than their state counterparts, but evidence suggests that more affluent families take advantage of time off school to enrich learning. The students I teach at Atlanta International School (AIS), which is private, typically travel abroad, volunteer with community projects or attend summer camps during their long vacation. We also give summer reading assignments to help our students stay on track.
But the reality is that parents’ ability to provide stimulating summer activities for their children is sharply constrained by income. As my headmaster Kevin Glass explained: “Here in the US, the summer camp industry is massive. The vast majority of our students at AIS are engaged in pretty significant and meaningful activities – sports, music, theatre, travel and culture. Other parents may not have the resources to pay for all this.”
Kevin Glass, AIS headmaster
With this in mind, my school is looking to partner next summer with the city of Atlanta to provide free or low-cost summer camps for the local community. “We will be offering fun, academic-type activities to families in our neighbourhood, to keep kids’ brains active and help mitigate against that summer learning dip,” said Mr Glass.
Indeed, educators and policymakers are increasingly promoting summer learning as a key strategy to improving the achievement of low-performing students. Even during my days teaching in the UK, I remember our local librarian pushing summer reading schemes and encouraging pupils to visit the town library. Here in the US, First Lady Michelle Obama launched Let’s Read. Let’s Move, an initiative to fight the summer reading gap, acknowledging that American children who do not read during their vacation can lose months of academic progress.
The holidays may be long, but when school’s out for summer, it is important that the learning doesn’t stop. Perhaps it’s not so much about how much time children spend in class, but what they do when they’re not.
Mary McCarney is a fourth grade English teacher at Atlanta International School. Looking for the right place for your expat child? Try ourInternational Schools directory.
