MU expert testifies about summer school on Capitol Hill

On Friday, June 21, 2002, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing on the importance of summer school to student achievement and well-being. Among those called to testify before the committee was University of Missouri-Columbia researcher Harris Cooper, who recommended that summer school programs be provided with a stable source of federal funding.

"Summer school programs clearly have a positive impact on the knowledge and skills of participants," said Cooper, an MU professor of psychological sciences. "The average student who attends summer school jumps over 5 to 10 percent of similar students who do not attend."

Cooper’s research has revealed that for the average student, summer learning loss equaled at least one month of instruction, meaning that a student’s achievement test scores were one month lower in the fall than when the student left school in the spring. This summer loss is greatest in subjects such as math and spelling, with increasing disparities between middle class and disadvantaged students’ reading scores.

"It is my recommendation that lawmakers continue to fund summer school programs across the United States," he said. "They should require that such funds be spent on instruction in math and reading, and that some funds should be specifically set aside in order to foster participation in summer programs, especially by disadvantaged students. I also believe that such funding should provide for significant local control of program delivery and require rigorous evaluation."

Cooper based his conclusions on an analysis of 93 evaluations of summer school in the United States. The evaluations covered programs focusing on remedial, accelerated and enrichment education. In 2000, the study was published as a monograph entitled Making the Most of Summer School.

As an expert in many educational issues, including homework, teacher expectation effects, summer learning loss and summer school effectiveness, Cooper’s research has had a profound impact on educational policies and practices nationwide. He received his doctorate in social psychology from the University of Connecticut in 1975 and has been on the faculty at MU since 1977. Cooper also is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. In addition to working directly with schools and school districts, he also shares his expertise with the national media. He has appeared on many programs including Dateline, CBS This Morning, ABC Nightly News, Good Morning America, CNN Headline News and the Oprah Winfrey Show. News of Cooper’s research findings also have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, Readers Digest and USA Today Weekend, as well as every major U.S. metropolitan daily newspaper.

Additional links:

Department of Psychological Sciences
Making the Most of Summer School

U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

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