School shouldn’t start till after Labor Day weekend, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu told the Union Leader.
Ending summer in mid-August hurts businesses, said Sununu, who used to run a year-round tourist resort.
It’s also bad for families, said the father of three. “My kids were younger and it was really disruptive for the summer to just stop dead and then have your kids go to school for three days and then have four days off over Labor Day.”
Michigan bans most schools from opening before Labor Day to help resort businesses, reports Emily Richmond in The Atlantic.
The “summer slide” in academic skills, especially math, primarily affects disadvantaged students, she writes. A “much-cited study by Johns Hopkins University researchers found two-thirds of the achievement gap between rich and poor ninth graders could be attributed to unequal access to summer learning opportunities.”
Many schools want more class time before state testing in May. Once students take the tests.
Khan Academy has launched LearnStorm, a set of online exercises, videos and articles, to get students back up to speed in six weeks. It’s free.
Here’s what we know about summer learning loss and what we can do about it.
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