By Frank X. Moraga
Amigos805.com
Summer vacation time is upon us. K-through-12 schools are busy completing their traditional school year, with high school, community college and four-year university graduation ceremonies rapidly coming to a close.
But while the school year is almost over, this is not the time to kick back for the next few months to allow the summer brain drain season to settle in. In fact, educators say this is a crucial time to maintain education excellence and prepare for the school year ahead.
During the summer, children lose one to three months of learning, according to a study by Dr. Harris Cooper, professor of psychology at the University of Missouri-Columbia in a story reported by www.familyeducation.com.
In fact, children lose a month in math, Cooper said. His study also found that income has an impact on how much a student loses or gains in reading.
Middle-class children actually gained in reading over the summer, while lower-income students experienced losses. Cooper attributes this to the enrichment activities that many middle-class kids participate in over the summer, such as camp and trips.
For Hispanic students, summer is a vital time to maintain the gains they have made in classrooms in recent years.
The National Assessment of Education Progress reports that Hispanic students appear to have bucked the trend of stagnant academic growth in U.S. history, civics and geography, according to an April 30 story written by Jessica Brown in Education Week.
While the 2014 NAEP report showed flat academic progress for students as a whole, Hispanic students as a group have made gains in U.S. history and geography since 2010 and in all three subject areas since the 1990s, when the first tests were administered.
So why the uptick in education performance?
Education experts pointed…
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