Are summer school and after school programs effective in helping to close the achievement gap?
Summer and after-school programs are essential, provided they are not focused on academic remediation. An important cause of the black-white achievement gap is that low-income children do not have cultural, organizational, and athletic experiences similar to those of middle class children, who go to museums and zoos, travel with their families, have access to public libraries for pleasure reading, participate in dance and music, and play in sports leagues. Such experiences develop children’s self confidence, self-discipline, and organizational skill, and give them a much broader context for learning (giving them, for example, reasons to want to read).Several years ago, I wrote about the impact of after-school programs on disadvantaged children. As I researched the topic, I was amazed at the number of successful adults, originally from disadvantaged backgrounds, who attributed their success to experiences in high quality after-school programs. (“In Some Important Ways, the Day Only Star
