Merry co-authors chapter of The Summer Slide

Assistant Professor of Sociology Joseph Merry has co-authored a chapter of a new book, The Summer Slide: What We Know and Can Do About Summer Learning Loss (Teachers College Press).

The Summer Slide, now available on Amazon.

The volume, published in September 2016, is designed to help policymakers, school administrators and teachers in their efforts to close academic achievement gaps and improve outcomes for all students. It takes a fresh look at what research has to say about summer learning loss, discusses the conditions in low-income children’s homes and communities that impede learning over the summer months, and includes best practices in summer programming with lessons on how to strength program evaluations.

In chapter eight, “Learning Outside of School: The Implications of Shadow Education for Seasonal Learning Patterns,” Merry and co-authors Claudia Buchmann of Ohio State University and Dennis Condron of Oakland University discuss the importance of research on shadow education, or structured, academic instruction taking place outside of regular school hours (such as private tutoring or classes at commercial learning centers) and share implications for policy, practice, and future research.

Merry joined the Furman faculty in 2015 and primarily investigates class-based and racial/ethnic inequalities in education. His work has appeared in journals such as Sociology of Education and Journal of Family Issues. His article, “Tracing the U.S. Deficit in PISA Reading Skills to Early Childhood: Evidence from the U.S. and Canada,” received awards from the American Sociological Association and the American Educational Research Association. He holds a B.A. degree from John Carroll University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Ohio State University.

The Summer Slide is now available through Amazon.