Research on the summer slide and summer reading
Explore New Zealand and overseas research into students’ reading loss over the long summer break. Use the research findings to advocate for and plan a summer reading initiative in your school community.
The summer reading slide — what the research says
New Zealand and overseas studies have shown that, for some students, the long summer break can result in a loss of reading gains made during the year. It can also impact students' engagement with learning.
A 2020 Colorado study analysed data from over 200 million test scores across 50 states. They found that summer does have an effect, and it can be significant.
During the summer, a little more than half the students exhibit SLL [summer learning loss] while the other half exhibit summer learning gains … We find that some students can in fact maintain average school-year learning rates during the summer in the absence of formal schooling. Other students, however, will lose nearly as much as what is typically gained in the preceding school-year.
— Atteberry and McEachin, School’s out: The role of summers in understanding achievement disparities
Impact on student academic achievement
Often the students who can least afford to lose their year's reading gains are the ones who fall the furthest behind.
When they return to school, struggling readers may need weeks, if not more, to regain their previous reading levels. This can be due to a drop in reading habits, momentum and confidence.
The consequences are cumulative and long-lasting and often impact the same students. This can have a powerful influence on students' reading scores. It can also affect their ongoing motivation to read.
… negative summer decrements tend to accumulate for the same students over time … Furthermore, these consecutive losses add up to a sizeable impact on where students end up in the achievement distribution: In a 5-year period, the average student in this group ultimately loses nearly 40% of their total school-year gains during the intervening summers.
— Atteberry and McEachin, School’s out: The role of summers in understanding achievement disparities
The loss is less pronounced or absent in students who have:
access to books
people in their lives modelling and encouraging reading for pleasure
holiday learning experiences, such as library or museum visits, or other similar outings.
According to Stuart McNaughton:
The frequency and types of engagement in literacy practices over summer breaks are associated with ongoing patterns of progress.
— The literacy landscape in Aotearoa New Zealand
The summer slide can also impact other curriculum areas, such as mathematics.
It's harder to close the gap once it has opened, especially for those struggling. So, the earlier the intervention the better.
Barriers to summer reading
Research indicates a variety of barriers prevent students from reading over the summer holidays. These include:
lack of access to books and libraries over the summer
low choice and lack of appropriate high-interest material
lack of reading skills and consequent low self-efficacy
negative attitudes to reading (readers are boring, reading is boring)
no opportunity to practice reading
lack of reading role models and encouragement to read.
Access to books students want to read is vital. The 2023 Scholastic report (US) noted that access to books at home has been a persistent issue documented by the Kids & Family Reading Report since 2012.
Kids & Family Reading Report — Scholastic's 2023 report. Includes a summer reading section and printable summer reading infographic.
Students need a community of support
Research also shows that school-community approaches help build a culture of reading for pleasure. Working together — teachers, whānau and families, and school and public library staff — can help to remove barriers to summer reading.
… the provision of suitable books for children to read over summer alongside guidance for family/whānau members to support and interact with them, produces achievement gains in literacy over summer.
— Stuart McNaughton, The literacy landscape in Aotearoa New Zealand
A Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) examined summer reading in schools in South Auckland. This led to 4 major recommendations to reduce summer reading loss:
Find out what children like to read and engage them in reading motivating texts.
Mentor students to develop informational interests. For example, guide them to:
develop a reading identity
become aware of what they like to read
develop strategies to choose texts they'll enjoy
teach them to access these texts and monitor their enjoyment.
Teach parents how to support children's engagement with a text.
Find out about students' summer reading at the beginning of the year.
School achievement: Why summer matters
Summer reading stories — some inspiring summer reading initiatives. Read and see if they may work in your own school community.
New Zealand research on summer reading
A summer reading programme — this 2017 article in the Set journal for teachers reflects on the 2014 TLRI research with Papatoetoe Central School, Papatoetoe Library and the local community.
Dare to Explore evaluations — reports on Auckland Libraries’ summer reading programmes.
Solving the summer slide: Strategies and suggestions — research on summer reading of Year 3 students. Students came from both low- and high-decile schools. They were encouraged to read self-selected books over the summer. Research looked at whether this stemmed the summer slide. Results show a positive effect of the summer books programme on STAR Reading. The ‘poor’ reading group made the most gains in sentence and paragraph comprehension.
Summer Reading Programme — an ongoing research-based programme running in a small number of South Auckland and Whangārei schools. It includes ideas and information for parents and schools.
Teaching strategies that work — Education Review Office (ERO) resource. Looks at activities Tamahere School implemented to encourage reading and address the summer slide.
The only way to go — article about the High Plus Summer Reading Programme encouraging students to use both the school and public library. Collaborators include South Taranaki LibraryPlus, Hawera High School Library and the Rotary Club.
Use it or lose it: Countering the ‘summer reading drop’ — 2015 article in Education Review: NZ Teacher. Article discusses how a primary and secondary school addressed summer learning loss. They ran programmes to support reading at home during the holidays.
International research on summer reading
Addressing summer reading setback among economically disadvantaged elementary students — longitudinal study. Provides evidence that giving easy access to self-selected books for summer reading helps reduce the summer reading slide.
Free books to close the reading achievement gap — 2024 article on Kappan. This 3-year study follows students who chose books during a book fair and received them at the end of the school year. The results show that students' reading improved as much as those who went to summer school.
Get ready for endless summer learning — discusses Seattle Public Library's initiative. They extended summer reading into STEM learning to help students pursue their interests. One challenge related to Three Billy Goats Gruff. Students were asked to design something that helps the 3 goats cross the river and avoid the troll.
Lasting consequences of the summer learning gap — research using data from the Baltimore Beginning School Study. Examined the long-term educational consequences of summer learning differences by family socio-economic level.
Libraries at the center of summer learning and fun: An online toolkit to expand from summer reading to summer learning — from the US. Summarises research findings on reading loss and the impact of 3 types of traditional summer reading programmes. Includes hands-on and inquiry learning activities. Programmes are about ‘doing’ as well as reading, at the public library, at home and elsewhere in the community.
Motivational attributes of children and teenagers who participate in summer reading clubs — from The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults. Looks at ‘demographic and motivational attributes of children and teenagers who participated in a summer reading club’.
Preventing summer reading loss for students in poverty: A comparison of tutoring and access to books — United States (US) comparative study. Focuses on at-risk youth from high-poverty schools. Findings add to growing evidence that access to books is a cost-efficient way to address summer reading loss.
The effects of summer reading on low-income children’s literacy achievement from kindergarten to grade 8: A meta-analysis of classroom and home interventions — analysis of research in US and Canada. The analysis considered summer reading interventions from 1998–2011. ‘The findings highlight the potentially positive impact of classroom- and home-based summer reading interventions on the reading comprehension ability of low-income children.’
Apply the research and plan a programme in your community
Plan a summer reading programme in your school or community. Read these guides for help:
Find out more
Search for summer reading articles on EPIC. The Ministry of Education subscribes to a range of EPIC resources so they are free for New Zealand schools to access.
How educators can strengthen summer reading connections with families — article by Scholastic Chief Academic Officer, Dr Amanda Alexander.
If kids can't read what they want in the summer, when can they? — article by teacher and author Donalyn Miller.
Kids & Family Reading Report: Summer reading — summary of findings in Scholastic's 2023 report.
Summer reading — resources and articles from Reading Rockets.
Allington, R. L. & McGill-Franzen, A. (2018). Summer Reading: Closing the Rich/Poor Reading Achievement Gap. Teachers College Press.
Jesson, R., McNaughton, S., & Kolose, T. (2014). Investigating the summer learning effect in low SES schools. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 37(1), 45–55. — A study looking at the effect of summer loss on low socio-economic schools (SES) in Auckland. Includes practices by teachers, students and their families to help maintain the reading momentum. Available through EPIC.
