It’s no secret that kids read less during summer than they do during the school year. In fact, the average child reads just 6 hours over summer vacation!

This lack of reading practice is, unfortunately, often due to a lack of access to books. Students who lack books to read at home during the summer can fall months, and eventually years, behind their peers. Fortunately, research points to summer reading as a powerful solution for preventing summer slide and closing the reading achievement gap once and for all.

Summer Slide By the Numbers 

Why is summer reading so important? Well, the numbers don’t lie. 

Students who read during the summer gain an average of 1 month of reading proficiency. Students who don’t read lose an average of 2-3 months proficiency and over time, those lost months add up to years. By high school, 2/3 of the reading achievement gap can be attibuted to summer learning loss during the elementary years. Ready to take a closer look at summer slide by the numbers?

We’ve created a fun infographic to show how summer slide happens—and how we can keep kids reading and achieving while school is out of session. Click the image to the right (or the button below) to see the full infographic and request your free print-friendly version!

Watch the replay of our Summer Reading Webinar, “Support Summer Readers and Watch Reading Skills Soar,” to learn practical strategies for promoting summer reading, discover resources for developing a school-wide summer reading solution and access free summer reading printables you can share with parents and guardians at home.