Research shows that teachers spend as much as six weeks each fall reviewing skills that were lost over the summer. Families can help their children stay sharp--and ahead of the curve in the fall--by practicing skills like reading and math during the summer months.

"If we can eliminate the summer gap, we can close the long-standing achievement gap between richer and poorer kids," said Richard Allington, a professor of education at the University of Tennessee and past president of the International Reading Association. "Basically, even poor kids grow reading skills at about the same rate as middle-class kids, when they are in school." he said. "Two-thirds of the achievement gap occurs during the summers, not during the school year."

Traditional outlets, such as free summer schools programs, are being slashed in some areas of the country to help balance strained budgets. This has left parents scrambling, not only for day care for younger children, but also for options to ensure their children don't fall behind.

"How to Make the Most of Summer" offers eight suggestions to keep your child learning, most of which are low-cost or free. One of my favorites is practicing math daily by tracking the daily temperature, measuring things around the house, and cooking (a great way to learn fractions). Other suggestions include participating in free library summer programs and making time to read every day; taking educational trips to local parks, museums, and zoos; and preparing for fall by previewing concepts and materials with your child. 

The Family Education website offers a plan for Reluctant Readers. With headings such as The Basics, Participate, Analyze, and Involve the Whole Family, the site provides detailed suggestions to keep that reluctant reader at your house reading during the summer months.

Subscribers to our own Raz-Kids website can use the site all summer long. For example, teachers shouldn't delete students until the fall. For summer reading, they can place them on the self-paced track and students will then be assigned all the books at their current reading level. The current teacher name and student icon/password will work all summer.

Subscribers to Reading A-Z have access to thousands of leveled books for students. Teachers might select books and print out a book list. Students can select the books they'd like to read, and classroom volunteers can assemble book packets for the students to take home for summer reading. Our Teacher's Corner offers summer reading contracts.

In January I asked, "Are We Testing Students Too Much?" and in March I blogged about "The Testing Debate." Comments from readers suggest that yes, we are testing students too much, but it's the best system we have to evaluate student learning. There has to be a better way of assessing our students, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has a plan.

Education Week reports that Duncan has earmarked $350 million of the "Race to the Top" fund to help states develop common academic assessments. It's expensive to develop tests of this nature--too expensive for most states to do on their own--which is why Duncan wants the federal government to pay for a test all states can use.

The timing is good and supports the effort led by the National Governor's Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to develop common national standards to be shared amongst all states.

I think people will always debate the subject of testing--types, frequency, and interpretation. But since we're likely to continue testing in some form or fashion, the tests should be of the highest possible quality and the most effective at accurately assessing student performance. Besides, a single test will prevent some states from creating less rigorous tests in order to demonstrate progress over time, and it would also allow us to have a more accurate picture of state-to-state comparisons.

When is it, exactly, that students who drop out of school disengage from education?

Granted, the process happens over a period of years, but when does it start? Teacher Magazine's recent article shares evidence that for many, the process begins just after the fourth grade, when our students are just 10 years old.

Lynne Strathman, director of a small alternative program for dropouts in Illinois, says her students consistently tell her that the last time they felt successful was in the fourth grade. How sad!  John Stack, administrator of an alternative school for young people aged 16-22 in Ohio, says students typically enroll at his school at a fourth-grade reading level.

Of course poor grades and difficulty learning are only two of the reasons kids disengage. This article also looks at bright kids who become bored when unchallenged, students with chaotic family lives or mental illness, and teens that become pregnant. Frequently students who drop out have more than one risk factor.

High school graduates tend to earn more than dropouts, enjoy better health, and live longer. Try telling that to a teenager who doesn't care. It's up to educational professionals to find ways to keep students engaged and interested in learning.

Schools can't control a student's chaotic family life, but they can, to some degree, control the educational tools--like differentiated instruction--used to ensure that students are being taught at a level appropriate to their abilities. Let's work to eliminate learning difficulties and boredom from the risk factors for dropping out.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that I am a big supporter of differentiated instruction. The Learning A-Z family of websites provides differentiated materials for students, as well as lesson plans and assessments that teachers can use to help differentiate instruction in their classrooms. In fact, the motivation for creating our websites was the need to address the diverse learning styles and levels of students in the typical classroom. Teachers need lots of choices if they are going to meet the individual needs of their students--we all know that one size does not fit all.

Teacher Magazine recently hosted an online discussion with Carol Tomlinson, noted authority on differentiated learning. Professor Tomlinson addressed a number of issues, including steps teachers can take with small-group instruction, professional development to properly prepare teachers for the challenges of differentiating instruction, differentiated assessment, roadblocks to differentiation, and differentiation with ELL students. I particularly liked her "big look fors" in a differentiated classroom. Some of the "big look fors" that I found particularly important were: a teacher who clearly values and relates to the kids as individuals and as a group; a class that functions as a team; the use of frequent assessment to monitor student learning; and teaching up--a high ceiling of expectations in the classroom.

I know many teachers who have successfully incorporated differentiated instruction on their own, but I also know that proper training can help flatten the learning curve and mitigate some of the challenges faced with differentiated instruction. So I implore administrators: support your teachers' professional development. Differentiated instruction is hard work, but the gains in student learning are worth it. I hope our resources are helping, and I hope you will let me know if there are other resources we can and should provide.