Reading has been the sine qua non of culture and civilization for thousands of years. The spread of literacy from the upper echelons of society to the middle and lower classes is perhaps one of the most defining characteristics of modernism. According to the United Nations, the presence of illiteracy in the world today among less-developed nations has been connected to continuing cycles of poverty, poor health, and deprivation, and makes democracy in these nations difficult or nearly impossible to achieve 1. So, the fact that reading scores for American high school graduates are the lowest they’ve been in 40 years should cause worry.
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The achievement gap is not an invisible problem. It is one that we can see and one that can be eliminated if we take action. Every summer underprivileged students who don’t have the means for learning resources or experiences will get set behind their more affluent peers. They also are more likely to return to a home environment every day that is not conducive to learning. Low-income families may have illiterate parents, no or limited access to technology, and a lack of literature — all influences that keep the poverty cycle going and the achievement gap strong.
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Summer vacation will be here before we know it, and while it is an exciting time for students to take a break from academia, it is also where students experience the largest learning losses. No student is safe from summer learning losses if their brains aren’t kept active throughout the summer months. However, students in lower-income families are generally at a much higher risk to suffer from learning losses which continues to increase the achievement gap between lower and higher income youth.
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