A seasonal perspective on school effectiveness: evidence from a Flemish longitudinal study in kindergarten and first grade
Abstract
Summer learning studies have been set up to investigate the evolution of initial group differences in academic achievement, for example, between low- and high-socioeconomic status (SES) children. Moreover, this approach has been used to demonstrate the absolute effect of going to school on children's learning. In the present study, we used multilevel piecewise linear growth modeling to analyze growth in mathematics skills throughout kindergarten and 1st grade. First, we added to the evidence of an absolute schooling effect by demonstrating that average learning rates were faster during both school years than during the intervening summer vacation. Second, mathematics achievement gaps between children from different socioeconomic, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds were found to remain stable during kindergarten and the summer vacation. During 1st grade, however, the ethnic and linguistic achievement gaps disappeared, whereas the SES achievement gap remained unchanged. Finally, we found no evidence for school-level variation in summer learning rates.
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Early influential studies found that summer is a time when socioeconomic learning gaps widen, but this finding has failed to replicate in more recent studies or in European samples.
“Although early influential studies also found that summer is a time when socioeconomic learning gaps widen, this finding has failed to replicate in more recent studies (8, 9) or in European samples (48, 49).”
From Learning loss due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021) · cites this paper as [48]
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Learning loss due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic
Engzell, P., Frey, A., & Verhagen, M. D. (2021) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2022376118 · Cited by 1,848 · see citing works
Learning loss due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic
Engzell, P., Frey, A., & Verhagen, M. D. (2020) · doi:10.31235/osf.io/ve4z7 · Cited by 1,739 · see citing works
COVID-19 learning losses: Early grade reading in South Africa
Ardington, C., Wills, G., & Kotze, J. (2021) · International Journal of Educational Development · doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102480 · Cited by 164 · see citing works
Meyer, F., Meissel, K., & McNaughton, S. (2017) · Journal of Research in Reading · doi:10.1111/1467-9817.12061 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
- Authors
- Verachtert, P., Van Damme, J., Onghena, P., & Ghesquière, P.
- Affiliations
- KU Leuven (BE)
- Corresponding author
- Verachtert, Pieter
- Venue
- School Effectiveness and School Improvement
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2009-06
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 215-233
- ISSN
- 0924-3453 (ISSN-L)
- 1744-5124
- OpenAlex
- W1973561282
- Cited by
- 58
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 4 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 16.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- School Effectiveness and School Improvement (publishedVersion)
- Lirias (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills
- Keywords
- summer learning loss, school effectiveness, mathematics achievement, kindergarten, first grade, socioeconomic status, ethnic achievement gap, language background, achievement gap, school-level variation
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