Research Shows Vacations Can Actually Make Kids Smarter Study Shows Link to Academic Achievement in First Graders
As the nation’s children settle in for another school year, many parents and teachers wonder how the summer break affected their children’s academic achievement. Analysis of a U.S. Department of Education study found that children who travel over summer break – whether to a beach, historic site or a national park – did better in reading, math and general knowledge than their peers who didn’t vacation.
“The data is clear – and gives hard-working parents another reason not to put off a summer vacation trip,” said Dr. Bill Norman, Clemson University. “Providing kids with the experience of travel broadens their horizons and opens up their minds to learning.”
A series of analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between summer vacation travel and academic achievement in children entering first grade. Specifically, the study explored whether going on a vacation, the number of days spent on a vacation and places visited were linked to academic achievement in the areas of reading, mathematics and general knowledge. The results revealed a significant difference in academic achievement and taking a family summer vacation trip. Children that traveled with their family over summer vacation scored higher on academic achievement assessment tests than those who did not travel. The days spent on family summer vacation trips had a modest significant relationship with academic achievement. Lastly, children who visited plays or concerts, art or science museums, historical sites, beaches or lakes, national or state parks, and zoos or aquariums had significantly higher academic achievement scores than those who did not.
“To date there has never been a study that plainly shows the correlation between travel and academic achievement,” says Jessica Parker, researcher, Clemson University. “It was interesting to see the impact on a child when they spend vacation time away with their family.”
Over three-fourths (75.2%) of the participants responded that the child had taken a family summer travel vacation prior to starting first grade. For those children that took a family summer vacation trip, the average number of days spent traveling was 11.8 days.
Smarter Kids
“The timeshare industry has always touted the importance of regular vacations for health and wellness,” says Howard Nusbaum, president and CEO, American Resort Development Association (ARDA). “This study gives families yet another strong reminder that taking vacation has benefits beyond the actual week or two of vacation.”
This research study of how vacation impacts childhood learning used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of the Kindergarten Class database from the United States Department of Education. The database contains information on 21,600 children followed from kindergarten through fifth grades. This year study examined children’s early school experiences as well as family and life experiences, such as summer activities. The parents of a subsample of 5,047 children were asked about summer travel. Academic achievement was measured with a series of standardized test in the three areas of math, reading and general knowledge.
Although the results indicate that summer vacation travel and academic achievement are linked, other factors such as income level, parent’s educational level and language spoke at home may influence these findings.
Q & A
VacationBetter.org recently sat down with two of the people behind the Smarter Kids study that shows vacations can impact a child’s educational performance – Jessica Parker and Dr. William Norman.
VB: What prompted you to look for a correlation between vacation and better educational performance?
Jessica: With field trips being cut from schools and families have less time and fewer resources to take vacations, I thought a great opportunity for learning was being overlooked. I believe that traveling and vacations dramatically shape how children learn, so I decided to pursue the topic.
Bill: My interest in the linkage between summer vacation travel and academic achievement began about 15 years ago as a result of the increase in year round schools and early starting dates in the Southeastern U.S. The result was the pitting of the tourism industry versus the education community over the length of summer vacations and its impact on the development of a child.
VB: Why do you think taking vacation helped these children get better test scores?
Jessica: Taking vacations helps children to achieve higher test scores because it allows them to learn about things that exist outside of their normal environment. Children that have never been outside of their city or state, sometimes have a harder time understanding the concept of a city, state, or state line. Children that travel get to experience other cultures, geographies, and activities than they would normally see in their hometown. I believe all of these travel experiences have a cumulative affect on academic achievement.
Bill: Family travel is a valuable type of non-formal education and contributes to the cognitive growth of the child and stimulates their sense of wonderment.
VB: What would you recommend parents do to achieve similar results?
Jessica: Take your children on vacation and be interactive with them throughout the vacation. View it as a learning opportunity.
Bill: Expose children to new and different environments and experiences in fun and informal manner when they are traveling. Make travel a form of play.
VB: Won't a historic site visit or time traveling internationally help more than a beach vacation?
Jessica: While a historic site visit would certainly be helpful to aiding a child's historical comprehension, a beach visit could also be very beneficial. By traveling to a beach, children have the opportunity to learn about wildlife, marine life, and the ocean. Children can understand an ocean tide much easier by seeing it in action, instead of through a textbook. Children also benefit by just being with their families away from every day distractions of home life. Visiting historic sites and international travel is important, but just as much can be learned by vacationing in our own country.
Bill: Jessica’s research found that children that visited a historical site AND those that visited a beach or lake did significantly better on their reading, mathematics and general knowledge scores than those that did not. Both environments provide opportunities experiential non-formal education. I see them complementary activities with different learning outcomes.
VB: Does this hold true for kids at any age, or just the youngest ones?
Jessica: Traveling/vacations are beneficial for kids of any age. Humans never stop learning, so travel to other parts of the country or world always provides a learning experience for kids and even adults. Anytime adults and children are in a different environment than normal, they will learn from the new culture or geographies that they are experiencing.
Bill: Our study only focused on summer vacation travel of children between kindergarten and first grade. However, other researchers have concluded that the negative effect of summer breaks increases with grade level. Further research is needed to examine the linkage between summer vacation travel and academic achievement.
************************ Jessica Parker finished her Bachelor's Degree in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management at Clemson University with an emphasis in Travel and Tourism in 2004. She completed several internships with the City of Greenville, South Carolina in Special Events and Youth Recreation. After graduation, Jessica entered graduate school at Clemson University, finishing with a Master of Science in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management. Jessica's thesis work was centered around family summer vacation trips and academic achievement in elementary students. After receiving her Master's Degree, she worked for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions for several years. Jessica now resides in Columbia, South Carolina and works for a human resources and staffing company.
Dr. William C. Norman is an Associate Professor in Clemson University's Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management (PRTM). His research interests include sustainable community tourism development, leisure travel decision making and behavior, tourism marketing and special interest tourism (i.e., agritourism, heritage tourism, sport tourism, fisheries tourism, culinary tourism, art tourism and nature-based tourism). Dr. Norman works with PRTM graduate students in identifying, developing and conducting theoretically-based and applied recreation and tourism research and educational programs that assist the tourism industry and leisure service providers and contribute to the tourism and recreation body of literature. Dr. Norman is the former Director of the Department of PRTM’s Recreation, Travel and Tourism Institute. Prior to joining Clemson University in 1995, Bill was a Marketing Specialist with the University of Wisconsin-Extension's Tourism Research and Resource Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Over the last 20 years he has conducted a wide range of recreation and tourism research for federal, state and local recreation and tourism organizations in South Carolina, North Carolina, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Dr. Norman has a Ph.D. in Recreation, Park and Leisure Studies from the University of Minnesota, a M.S. in Park and Recreation Resources from Michigan State University, and a B.S. in Recreation Resource Management from the University of Minnesota.
