As educators, we all know about the summer slide—that disheartening and frustrating phenomenon in which students return to school in the fall knowing less than what they walked out the door with in the spring. Research shows elementary students’ performance falls by about a month during the summer, with students from low income households losing even more. To make matters worse, the summer slide appears to be cumulative. This contributes hugely to achievement gaps shown between low-income and higher-income students over time. 

The summer slide has always been painful, but now we are facing a COVID slide that threatens to overwhelm our educational system. Washington State is examining ways to address this loss of learning, including extending the school year as outlined in Senate Bill 5147. This bill calls for 50 school districts to pilot an extended school year program of up to 210 school days beginning in the 2022-23 school year and running through the 2025-26. At the conclusion of this pilot, the state would then determine whether an extended school year should be implemented statewide.