Avoid Summer Learning Loss with Peaksmart

School's out for most of Peaksmart's students in North America. Summertime, for many kids, means having fun in the sun, summer camps, swimming, ice cream, water-balloon fights, skateboarding--the list goes on and on.

Summer can be full of fun times for kids, but there are some serious academic downsides. The National Summer Learning Association at Johns Hopkins University [1] has conducted studies indicating that students lose, on average, 2.6 months of grade-level math knowledge over the summer. Researchers have dubbed this phenomenon the "summer learning slide." Many solutions for stopping the slide have been proposed, including tutoring, online solutions, and extending the school year to avoid long gaps in learning.

In general, most students score lower on standardized tests after a summer break. In fact, if students take the same test before and after a summer break, the results show a significant loss of skills over the summer [2].

Additionally, some kids are more susceptible to the summer learning slide than others. Lower-income students in particular struggle to find educational opportunities, like computer camps, museums, even  libraries. In fact, some researchers have shown that the summer slide is one of the reasons why many students in high-poverty communities are up to three grade levels behind their peers by the time they reach high school [3].

Kids tend to lose both math and reading skills, but math skills are particularly susceptible to decay over the long summer break. The reasons for the difference in rates of learning loss between reading and math skills are varied, but many school districts assign summer reading lists that need to be completed over the break. Lots of kids like to relax with a Harry Potter book in between all of the other summertime activities. Opportunities for reading abound, for many kids, throughout the summer break.

But practicing math skills in the summer isn't something that was natural in the past for many kids. As more parents and teachers realize the damage that the summer slide inflicts on their students' math skills, they are increasingly turning to online solutions like Peaksmart. The best way to prevent math-skill loss is regular practice, as we've discussed in this blog previously [4].

Peaksmart is here to help battle the summer slide with quizzes, drills, practice sessions and more. None of these options take too much time for the student or parent - leaving you plenty of time for that game of catch or trip to the beach. In fact, we'll even grade your students' work and keep you abreast of their progress.

Use Peaksmart this summer and stop the summer slide before it begins!

References

1. http://www.summerlearning.org
2. http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-5/summer.htm
3. http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2010/07/28/the-summer-learning-slide/
4. http://blog.peaksmart.com/2011/02/why-repetition-works.html

The Latest Peaksmart Release: Drill Mode and More!

Hi Peaksmart Fans!

We've been getting some great feedback from parents and teachers using Peaksmart and we've dedicated this release to adding a few pieces of functionality that stood out in our "most requested" improvements list.

Our biggest news is that with the introduction of drill mode, there are now three ways to use Peaksmart! Find out more below.

• Drill Mode - In addition to adaptive practice sessions and quizzes, we now offer "drill" mode! Drill mode is similar to practice mode, only it's not adaptive. Using drill mode (accessible from all of our Practice pages--see the screenshot below), students can solve an unlimited number of problems in a single topic. It's particularly helpful when students are preparing for a test or when they want to focus on speed and accuracy. As always, students can log in to earn points in drill mode, and as long as they're logged in their drill sessions count towards mastery! We believe there's more than one way to learn math, and we have three of them ready for your students--and more coming soon!

• Skip assessment - For parents and teachers who want to get their students working on quizzes as quickly as possible, we now allow Peaksmarters to skip the initial assessment quiz. The length and breadth of the assessment quiz can be a little more intense when compared to a daily quiz, so we're letting our students hop straight into the quizzes. Simply press the green "Skip Assessment" button before your student begins their assessment quiz.  Our adaptive algorithms will still work their magic to ensure the student is getting the quiz questions most appropriate for their skill level.

• Enter key - Last but not least, we've made a really small change that we're expecting will facilitate huge improvements in quiz, practice and drill timings. No longer does your student have to move their mouse and click the Submit button to answer their questions. They can now simply hit the enter key on their keyboard and sail through their quizzes at unprecedented speeds! We're going to be watching our Peaksmarters' scores over the next few weeks, and we're pretty excited to see the faster timings and improved scores pour in from all over the globe. 

Thanks again for all of your support and feedback. We're happy to be able to help your students not only learn math, but love math.

The Peaksmart Team

Preschool and High-Quality Early Education: It's a Great Investment

W. Steven Barnett is a Professor and Co-Director of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University. His research includes studies of the economics of early education, its costs and benefits, as well as the long-term effects of preschool programs on children's learning and development and society as a whole.


In a short NIEER video, Preschool: America's Best Investment, Professor Barnett summarizes his team's research findings on the consequences and pay-offs associated with high-quality early education.





The video also describes the myriad benefits for children who attend good preschools that emphasize early education. It's during the formative years of 2 to 5 years of age when humans develop personal, social, and emotional habits that stick with them throughout the rest of their lives. This is also the time when toddlers first start dealing with self-control by learning to block out distractions and following directions. Reaching children and emphasizing the importance of education and the fun of learning during this time frame is crucial.

According to Barnett, high-quality early education benefits our school systems. His studies suggest that attending a good preschool and acquiring a love of learning early reduces the need for many special education programs and repeated grades, both of which are expensive options in terms of money and time. 


Our communities, and society in general, benefit from early education, too. In a seminal research study, Benefits, Costs, and Explanation of the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program [2], Lawrence J. Schweinhart of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation describes the high returns for communities investing in high-quality preschool. The study followed two groups of underprivileged kids from age 3 to 41. One group attended great preschools that prepared them for Kindergarten; the other group did not. The kids in the group that attended a high-quality preschool where less likely to spend time in jail, earned 59% more income, and owned their own houses by a factor of 3. 


Toddlers are our future workforce--so early education seems like a great investment.  According to Barnett, depending on how you calculate it, every dollar spent on early education has a 10:1 payoff. Other sources have concluded the payoff to be closer to 16:1. Barnett states "The question isn't 'Can we afford it'. Given the evidence, how can we afford not to? "

The Peaksmart team believes in high-quality early education, too. We're happy to help parents and teachers help their kids learn and love math during the most crucial stages in their development.

References
1. http://nieer.org/about/bio.php?PersonID=1
2. http://www.highscope.org/file/Research/PerryProject/Perry-SRCD_2003.pdf