INSTITUTION SERVE: SouthEastern Regional Vision for Education.

This policy brief reviews research on the effectiveness of summer-school programs. It begins with a short history of the current school calendar, including how 19th century agrarian life required children to stay home during the summer to attend to crops or livestock. Next, a meta-analysis of 13 studies brings to light the effects long summer breaks have on students, such as the loss of 1 month on achievement test scores, and the significant loss of math and spelling skills. A history of summer school and summer-school goals follows. Goals include.preventing delinquent behavior, remediating or preventing learning deficits, helping to meet minimum competency requirements, breaking the poverty cycle, and accelerating progress for gifted students. A review of research on summer school's effectiveness follows, which demonstrates a dominantly positive effect on students. The brief concludes with recommendations that policymakers should continue to fund summer-school programs, require that funds for summer schoo