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Keffrelyn Brown, University of Texas at Austin and Anthony L. Brown, University of Texas at Austin

The arrival of summer generates excitement. But it could also bring challenges for both parents and educators. Many students experience a loss in math learning during the summer months known commonly as “summer slide.”

Students from middle-class families may not be as affected as they have access to more resources to make up for the learning loss. However, those from lower-income backgrounds could experience significant losses, particularly in math and reading.

Researchers point to the summer slide as a contributing factor in the persistent academic achievement gap between students from lower-income backgrounds and their middle-class peers.

But, does race also conflate with class, when it comes to summer slide? What does summertime mean for black children and the parents and caregivers who care for them?

We are education researchers who are black and parents to two black children – one in elementary school and another in preschool. If the U.S. imagination constructs summer as a time for swimming, free play, baseball and lazy days on the beach, it has never played out this way in our home.

We feel the weight of summer – both for its limitations and its possibilities. To us, the summer is less a time to focus solely on fun and more of what we call the “summer soar.”

Summer goals for black parents

The term “summer soar” is not taken from research or policy studies. We use it to reflect the triple burden that some parents of color – in our case, black parents – could endure during the summer months.

For these parents, summertime provides time to accomplish three goals: (1) reinforce what was learned in the previous year, (2) get a head start on the upcoming year and, most importantly, (3) supplement valuable yet missing curriculum knowledge generally not offered in traditional schools that reflects students’ racial and cultural identities.

Let’s look at what we mean by missing curriculum knowledge.

We offer an example of this in a study we conducted with a researcher at Sacramento State College, Julian Vasquez-Heilig. The study examined how culture and race were addressed in the most recently adopted 11th grade U.S. history Texas state standards.

Findings highlighted that topics in the social studies standards did not fully address the contributions of people of color in the U.S. In the case of black people, much of the focus centered only on cultural contributions and not on the other ways black people contributed to the U.S. narrative.

Added to this was the tendency to give partial attention to the legacy of racism. This history of U.S. racism was not discussed as foundational to the development and maintenance of the country.

Black students’ mis-education

This is not unique to Texas nor found in the area of social studies alone. Education researchers have long acknowledged how official K-12 school curriculum and approaches to teaching fail to affirm black students’ cultural identities. They also reinforce the belief that black people have not made any contributions to the U.S. society.

As far back as the turn of the 20th century, notable scholars including W.E.B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson and Anna Julia Cooper addressed the problems and limitations of schooling for African-Americans.

As a result, black students run the risk of experiencing what historian Carter G. Woodson called “mis-education.” Mis-education is a process where school knowledge helps to foster a sense of contempt or disregard for one’s own histories and experiences, regardless of the level of education attained.

So, for us as parents and educators, the “summer soar” is not just about further developing our son’s academics. It is also about fostering a consciousness to help ward off the subtle effects of mis-education – a concern shared by many black families.

Why it is uniquely burdensome

We recognize that black parents are not the only ones worried about their children’s academic achievement and social development. Families, in general, are critical about the overreliance on standardized testing that makes school less a place for meaningful engagement.

Yet what makes the “summer slide” and as a consequence the “summer soar” experience of black parents uniquely burdensome is the context in which it occurs.

Along with the curriculum and teaching problems black children encounter in schools around race and culture, there is a legacy of positioning black males and black children in troubling, dehumanizing ways.

For example, scholars note that black children, specifically black boys, are often viewed as mature and “adult-like.” Their behaviors and experiences are not seen as part of the normal arc of childhood development. Scholars find that in this “adultification” process, black children are not given the allowance of childhood innocence.

These “deficit-oriented” perspectives are found not only in academic literature, but also in public policy, popular media and everyday conversations. A contemporary reflection of this is found in the call for the popular #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Being black in the summer

To be clear: We don’t feel we are approaching the “summer slide” or our “summer soar” from a place of unfounded anxiety or as parents too focused on their child’s education.

Black people have been and continue to be dealt with in schools and society in deeply problematic ways. Just consider the growing number of black families that are choosing to homeschool their children.

In a study that examined the perspectives of 74 African-American homeschoolers in the U.S., researchers Ama Mazama and Garvey Lundy found that the second most important reason that black parents chose to homeschool, right behind concerns with quality of education, was to protect against the racism found in traditional school settings.

Being black in the summer (or anytime really) is not easy. The challenge black families face is navigating an educational context that requires excelling in mainstream school settings, while buffering against the very same education systems that deny one’s humanity.

This summer, like all summers for us, is filled with ambitious goals. We want to help our rising second grader memorize multiplication facts, advance his reading level and improve his writing. But we also want to introduce him to poetry and literature by black authors, teach him about ancient African civilizations and expose him to the concepts of fairness and justice as key to the black struggle in the U.S.

Our task is not easy. But it is our reality – one that we share with countless others – that goes unrecognized in the popular discussions around “summer slide” and the idyllic dream of a lazy summer.

Keffrelyn Brown, Associate Professor of Cultural Studies in Education, University of Texas at Austin and Anthony L. Brown, Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Texas at Austin

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Naomi Baron, American University

Do students learn as much when they read digitally as they do in print?

For both parents and teachers, knowing whether computer-based media are improving or compromising education is a question of concern. With the surge in popularity of e-books, online learning and open educational resources, investigators have been trying to determine whether students do as well when reading an assigned text on a digital screen as on paper.

The answer to the question, however, needs far more than a yes-no response.

Reading in print versus digitally

In my research, I have compared the ways in which we read in print and onscreen. Between 2013 and 2015, I gathered data from 429 university students drawn from five countries (the U.S., Japan, Germany, Slovenia and India).

The students in my study reported that print was aesthetically more enjoyable, saying things such as “I like the smell of paper” or that reading in print is “real reading.” What’s more, print gave them a sense of where they were in the book – they could “see” and “feel” where they were in the text.

Print was also judged to be easier on the eyes and less likely to encourage multitasking. Almost half the participants complained about eyestrain from reading digitally (“my eyes burn”), and 67 percent indicated they were likely to multitask while reading digitally (compared with 41 percent when reading print).

At the same time, respondents praised digital reading on a number of counts, including the ability to read in the dark, ease of finding material (“plenty of quick information”), saving paper and even the fact they could multitask while reading.

Measuring learning

But the bigger question is whether students are learning as much when they read onscreen.

A number of researchers have sought to measure learning by asking people to read a passage of text, either in print or on a digital device, and then testing for comprehension.

Most studies have found that participants scored about the same when reading in each medium, though a few have indicated that students performed better on tests when they read in print.

The problem, however, with learning-measurement studies is that their notion of “learning” has tended to be simplistic. Reading passages and answering questions afterwards may be a familiar tool in standardized testing, but tells us little about any deeper level of understanding.

Some researchers are beginning to pose more nuanced questions, including one scholar who has considered what happens when people read a story in print or on a digital device and are then asked to reconstruct the plot sequence. The answer: Print yielded better results.

Another aspect of learning is to see how outcomes differ when students are doing their reading in less prescriptive experimental conditions. One study let students choose how much time to spend when reading on each platform. The researchers found that participants devoted less time to reading the passage onscreen – and performed less well on the subsequent comprehension test.

This finding is hardly surprising, given the tendency so many of us have to skim and search when going online, rather than reading slowly and carefully. In my study, one student commented,

“It takes more time to read the same number of pages in print comparing to digital.”

Another complained,

“It takes me longer because I read more carefully.”

Critical thinking and reading

How does the learning question relate to educational goals? There is much buzz today about wanting students to be good at critical thinking. Definitions of that goal are elusive, but it’s pretty clear they involve being able to understand complex ideas, evaluate evidence, weigh alternative perspectives and construct justifiable arguments.

To become proficient in critical thinking – at least in a literate society – students need to be able to handle text. The text may be long, complex or both. To make sense of it, students cannot skim, rush ahead or continually get distracted.

So, does reading in print versus onscreen build critical thinking skills?

The comprehension studies we talked about earlier tell us little about the kind of reading we recognize as necessary for serious contemplation or analysis. An alternative approach, at least for starters, is asking students about their digital and paper-based reading patterns – much as physicians ask for histories (along with physicals and lab tests) to figure out what ails their patients.

While my own study didn’t directly measure learning, it did query students about their reading patterns and preferences. The responses to some of my questions were particularly revealing.

When asked on which medium they felt they concentrated best, 92 percent replied “print.” For long academic readings, 86 percent favored print. Participants also reported being more likely to reread academic materials if they were in print.

What’s more, a number of students indicated they believed print was a better medium for learning. One said,

“It’s easier to focus.”

Others stated,

“[I] feel like the content sticks in the head more easily” and

“I feel like I understand it more.”

By contrast, in talking about digital screens, students noted “danger of distraction” and “no concentration.”

Obviously, student perceptions are not the same thing as measurable learning outcomes. And my research didn’t probe connections between reading platforms and critical thinking.

However, a pattern did emerge: Print stood out as the medium for doing serious work.

Digital is convenient and cheaper

At the same time, we cannot ignore other factors impacting students’ decisions about what reading platform to chose for school work.

Convenience is one big consideration: More than 40 percent of participants in my study mentioned convenience (including easy access to materials) as what they liked most about reading onscreen.

Money is another variable. Students were highly conscious about differential prices for print and digital versions of reading materials, with cost often driving choice. As one student put it,

“Cost rules everything around me.”

Many students revealed a mismatch between finances and learning. When queried about which reading platform they would choose if cost were the same, 87 percent said “print” for academic work.

Adapting to digital learning

We also need to keep in mind the growing trend for universities to adapt their curricula to fit the proverbial “procrustean” bed of a digital world – a world tailor-made for skimming, scanning and using the “find” function rather than reading slowly and thoughtfully.

Professors now toy with ditching long or complex reading assignments in favor of short (or more straightforward) ones, moving closer to digital reading patterns in the nonacademic world. This world hypes condensed versions of texts and shorter reading material that is bite-sized to begin with.

The question then is how can universities help students read text thoughtfully, reflectively, and without distraction on digital devices?

One key could be adaptation. Research suggests students may be overconfident about what they are understanding when they read digitally. Teaching them to be mindful in their digital reading (for instance, by writing down key words from the reading) may help in learning.

Another form of adaptation is happening in the realm of digital hardware and software. Modern screens cause less eyestrain, and annotation programs continue to improve. Some digital reading devices now come with tools enabling them to digitally approximate physical page flipping and multiple place-marking.

However, in my view, while short-and-to-the-point may be a good fit for digital consumption, it’s not the sort of reading likely to nurture the critical thinking we still talk about as a hallmark of university education.

Naomi Baron, Executive Director, Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning, American University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.