Teachers run bookmobile to counter 'summer slide'

The “summer slide” is not the kind found in the playground, and it’s not fun when it happens to children.

Educational professionals refer to the “summer slide” when students regress in their reading ability because they don’t read over summer vacation, according to Ruder Elementary Reading Specialist Betsy Kohnstamm. The summer slide is particularly detrimental to struggling readers. In the fall when school starts for these readers, the task is to catch up rather than progress.

Reading is Fundamental, a nonprofit children’s literacy organization, further states that the effects of not reading over the summer are cumulative and that “by the end of fifth grade, children who lose reading skills over the summer will be three years behind their classmates.”