Out-of-school programs, including afterschool and summer learning, are more in demand than ever. According to , the most comprehensive national study of afterschool and summer program participation, parents of nearly 30 million children want their kids to attend an afterschool program. Yet only 7 million students are enrolled. The reason is clear: of families say they cannot afford afterschool programs, and summer programs, which often offer full-day coverage, can be even further out of reach, particularly for .

While the crisis in care for young children is , much less attention is paid to what happens once they enter elementary school, even as costs for afterschool and summer programs . The result is deeply inequitable access. Families with high incomes spend on out-of-school activities than those with lower incomes ($6,588, compared with $734 annually). Unsurprisingly, children from higher-income households are much more likely to participate in enrichment opportunities and other activities outside the school day. 

This matters not only for families, but for schools and communities. High-quality out-of-school programs bolster for students, and make it easier for parents to by providing enriching child care. Summer programs, in particular, can play a critical role in preventing learning loss and expanding access to enrichment that many students would otherwise miss. When costs are out of reach, the kids who could benefit the most are the least likely to attend.

At the same time that family demand is growing, the critical funding that helps keep access affordable is increasingly fragile. Federal programs dedicated to afterschool and summer programs, such as 21st Century Community Learning Centers, face uncertainty. This creates unpredictability not only for families, but also for the nonprofit organizations that provide the bulk of affordable programming.

The good news is that this problem is addressable. Making out-of-school programs accessible will require coordinated action involving providers, public funding and philanthropy, but there are clear steps that can be taken now. 

First, nonprofit providers can rethink their revenue strategies to balance access and sustainability. Many nonprofit organizations are experimenting with charging for some aspects of their programs, preserving affordability for families while strengthening their own long-term financial health. For example, , an Overdeck Family Foundation grantee focused on science, technology, engineering and math, introduced modest registration and participation fees for a new high school program that invites students to design , while keeping its core middle school model free. At the same time, DiscoverE expanded corporate partnerships to cover student travel and participation costs for its in-person STEM competition. Since making these changes in 2023, the organization has increased total revenue by 26% and earned revenue by 21%, all while increasing participation to 84,000 students in 2025. The lesson isn’t that every nonprofit should raise fees, but that flexible revenue strategies can expand access rather than restrict it.

Second, providers should look toward emerging public funding streams. For example, 28 states and the District of Columbia now offer some form of support for afterschool and summer programs. Education savings accounts, currently available through , present another potential source. While afterschool and summer programs are among the eligible ESA expenses, these policies are evolving, and families’ use of them is expanding. Finally, a could generate additional resources. Under the law, eligible taxpayers can receive a credit for donations of up to $1,700 to intermediaries known as scholarship-granting organizations, which can, in turn, grant scholarships for educational expenses, including extended day programs. How these dollars ultimately support afterschool and summer programs remains to be seen, but it’s another possible revenue stream in a field where demand consistently outpaces families’ ability to pay.

Third, philanthropy subsidies play a critical role. When cost is the primary barrier, philanthropic dollars can subsidize program slots, fund scholarships or cover costs for materials and educator salaries that would otherwise be passed on to families. The benefits of out-of-school programs make them a natural fit for funders focused on education, youth development or workforce participation.

As another summer registration season approaches, all stakeholders — providers, intermediaries, policymakers and funders — have a role to play in increasing the affordability of out-of-school time programs. This will ensure that any family who wants a high-quality, enriching program for their child is able to find one, and that more students can access out-of-school experiences that bolster a wide range of academic and social skills.  

Nearly 30,000 Oregon students took advantage of literacy-focused summer school programs and most made learning gains in 2025, according to the Oregon Department of Education.

The findings, shared in a recent from the agency, show that the $35 million per year in consistent funding for summer school that lawmakers in law last year is working, according to education officials. They were supposed to discuss the findings Tuesday in the Legislature’s Joint Subcommittee on Education, but the meeting was cut short due to scheduling changes.

“Continued investment in summer learning is not only justified; it is a proven, accountable strategy that delivers measurable returns for students, communities, and the state,” officials wrote in the analysis.

Districts were required to report measured learning outcomes, but how learning was measured was largely left to districts, some of whom reported standardized test scores or teacher and student feedback, along with credit recovery numbers. Improving outcome measures and tracking gains over time are among the education department’s priorities for improving the summer learning programs in the year ahead, according to the presentation officials had prepared for lawmakers.

Applications for funding for upcoming 2026 summer programs on February 20 and grantees will be announced in April.

More than 106 school districts in 30 of the state’s 36 counties received funding for programs in 2025, and many partnered with community groups to reach a broader range of students, according to the analysis. Of the nearly 30,000 students who participated in programs, more than half were elementary aged kids in kindergarten through 5th grade. Another 31% were in high school and 15% were middle schoolers. Many were English-language learners and most attend school in rural areas.

“The big takeaway for us is, as the education department noted, the force-multiplier effect of those partnerships,” said Louis Wheatley, a spokesperson for the nonprofit Foundations for a Better Oregon.

The group was among those advocating for lawmakers to pass consistent summer school funding last year.

“This aligns what we see in tons of research on the power of partnerships with community-based organizations, particularly in rural regions,” Wheatley said.

Improving student literacy was the primary focus of all summer school programs, and 77% of schools reported that students maintained or improved their reading and writing skills, according to the report. Most of the high school programs focused on credit recovery, and 80% of high schoolers who participated earned credits needed to graduate, mostly in English Language Arts and Math.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Shumway for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com.

More and more, are developing strategies for summer instruction, recognizing it as a cost-effective way to combat learning loss, drive academic and social-emotional benefits for students and advance curricular priorities. Designing and delivering high-quality summer programs requires many of the same district-level efforts needed to plan a full academic year, including recruiting and enrolling students, identifying qualified staff, defining the curriculum, providing professional development and arranging for transportation. All this takes time.

Because influence local activities, will position leaders, from state capitals to schools, for success in 2026. As they get to work on summer learning, state leaders should keep four guiding principles in mind.

First, they can make summer learning a priority by signaling its importance as a vehicle for education and enrichment. and , for example, have done this by codifying summer learning into legislation. Through its Additional Days School Year initiative, has allowed districts to add up to 30 instructional days to the school calendar, including through summer learning programs. has provided communication toolkits that include flyers and social media graphics that build awareness of and enthusiasm for summer reading programs throughout the state. Designed to attract students, teachers and site coordinators, the tools also detail the benefits of participation: Students receive free, small-group tutoring, have a chance to catch up and build confidence in all subjects; and teachers get to work intensively with smaller student groups while receiving training and coaching.

Second, state leaders can establish a vision for what summer learning should accomplish for students. Some states, like , have made literacy a priority. emphasizes reading camps that include daily doses of math as well. For high school students, New Mexico offers paid summer internships, providing work experience and opportunities for community engagement. 

Third, summer learning must be factored into state education budgets. Funding decisions are particularly time-sensitive and may require legislative action. It is crucial for state leaders to help local education agencies understand avenues for funding their programs. Several states have secured ongoing financial support for summer learning, whether through legislative action (Oregon), tax revenue () or recurring budget line items ().  

States can consider an array of funding options to support local programming, which may include formula grants, competitive grants, grants for districts and grants for community-based organizations that may partner with districts. However, applying for grants can be time-consuming and labor-intensive. Some of the school systems serving the students with the greatest needs may have limited bandwidth for grant writing. 

Lastly, it is critically important for state education leaders to offer guidance for providers of summer learning to help translate their vision into program design. For example, the collaborates with state education leaders to give financial and technical support to community organizations offering evidence-based summer programs. requires summer programs to be at least 30 days in length and to blend core instruction, enrichment activities and social-emotional support, which is consistent with . Texas mandates that districts receiving state funds share data related to enrollment, attendance and academic growth, to help its state education agency understand engagement and impact statewide. 

As part of this quality-assurance effort, state education leaders should consider the “both/and” qualities of summer learning: It is most effective when designed with both evidence-based characteristics and flexibility in mind. Certain , such as a combination of academic and enrichment activities, the use of highly qualified staff and sufficient time for academic instruction, contribute to . At the same time, effective programs are flexible enough to address a range of needs and goals. For example, a state or district might identify a need to focus on building reading skills or providing students with opportunities for STEM immersion or career exploration. Widespread summer programming that will make a difference for students across villages, tribes, towns and cities in each state will depend on a “both/and” mindset. 

Summer is not just a time. It is a tool for providing evidence-based, adaptable learning programs. As they enjoy autumn, state leaders must look ahead to summer 2026, ensuring their state and local partners are well positioned to advance learning priorities and opportunities for the students they serve. 

Their teacher engaged them in a call and response: “You can poke it!” she says. “You can?”

“Poke it!” they responded in unison before she added, “and take a little bit of dirt out!”

Down the hall, in a kindergarten classroom, kids spent the morning working on math problems before moving into a purposeful play session focused on fossils.

“I’m working on three plus three equals six … using blocks!” exclaimed one student, Gabriella, who shared that her favorite parts of the day are “snack and recess and lunch.”

Later that afternoon, she and her classmates headed to one of a number of extracurricular activities ranging from martial arts to step dance and soccer.

These students at New Bridges Elementary, a school which sits along a stretch of the Eastern Parkway in the heart of Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood, were participating in a partnership between New York City Public Schools and the Department of Youth and Community Development. The program, launched in 2021 in the depths of the pandemic, gives students access to free academic and enrichment programming over the course of six summer weeks — a time when schools have historically been shuttered to all students except those in need of the most concentrated, remedial academic support.

New York City is one of scores of districts across the nation who have worked to transform traditional summer school into a more inclusive, enrichment-filled yet still academically rigorous space. 

Some of these districts began this shift over a decade ago, following the release of a which put forth a case for rebuilding summer learning and highlighted the ways in which this time could be used to fight some of the academic backslide typically seen between June and September, especially for students from low-income backgrounds. 

These efforts were supercharged during the pandemic, when schools were faced with a learning loss crisis and, simultaneously, a seismic funding influx from the $189.5 billion Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, also known as ESSER.

The pandemic, “really lit a fire in everybody to say, ‘We can’t do things the same,’” said Nancy Gannon, senior advisor of Teaching and Learning for U.S. Education at , a nonprofit which built the to help districts and states rethink what can be accomplished during these down months.

“I don’t think people really dug into the potential of summer until these last couple years,” she added. “And now that they see how potent it can be. I don’t know that there’ll be any going back.”

But some districts and states are scrambling to hold onto this new vision of summer with ESSER money sunsetting, the recent freeze — then release —  of the federal dollars that keep many of these programs afloat and a greater uncertainty about the very future of the U.S. Department of Education and all its funding streams.

‘It can be a joyful place’

Kevyn Bowles, the principal of New Bridges Elementary, said he’s witnessed the transformation of summer first hand over the course of his 12 years running the school.

Historically, you were “bringing together the students who had done the most poorly over the course of the school year in eight different schools, and putting them all in a class together,” he said. “So even if you were bringing your most joyful teaching self to it, it still just was a challenging situation.”

Kids didn’t want to be there, he added, and it showed. That changed with the introduction of Summer Rising in 2021. 

“Even from that first summer, it felt more like an opportunity for students,” Bowles said, “versus something that we were forcing just a small number of kids [to do] because they had quote, unquote, failed. … We had enormous demand”

This summer, around 250 elementary school students have signed up to attend Summer Rising at Bowles’ school, and fewer than 30 of them are mandated to be there. 

Each morning, the kids gather in the auditorium at 8 a.m. for Bright Start, a five-minute morning meeting filled with songs, affirmations and high fives. 

“To me that just sets the tone,” said Bowles, “like we’re here together. We’re in this together. It can be a joyful place. It can be a fun day.”

Kids next head to a half-hour block of social-emotional learning through yoga and mindfulness, followed by three-and-a-half hours of concentrated academics, taught by licensed teachers. After lunch and recess, students have their afternoon “specials” — including soccer, martial arts, theater and dance — which wrap up by 6 p.m. each evening.

Bowles said the vast range of enrichment activities they’re uniquely able to offer students over the summer bring a lot of happiness and motivation to the school building. And while attendance in July and August remains a challenge, New Bridges Elementary has seen positive results in math and reading, especially for the youngest students: Kindergarteners through second graders who attended Summer Rising in past years either maintained their skills or grew, whereas their peers who didn’t, slid slightly backwards.

“Summer learning arguably has the greatest impact at the lowest price on the greatest number of students of any policy solutions,” Chris Smith, executive director of , told ����Ӱ��. “And it’s time that we invest in it in a serious way with public funding.”

‘A blank canvas’

For summer learning to be an effective tool to combat learning loss — rather than merely functioning as child care or summer camp — school leaders need to strategically implement research-backed best practices, experts and researchers told ����Ӱ��.

From 2011-16 a group of RAND researchers , free and district-led summer learning programs for low-income elementary students in five urban school districts: Boston, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Duval County, Florida and Rochester, New York.

They found it was important to pair strong teachers with rigorous academic curriculum and high-quality enrichment experiences. Other recommendations include:

• Programs should run for five to six weeks with three to four hours a day of concentrated academics, including 90 or more minutes of math and 120 or more minutes of English Language Arts.

• Small class sizes, capped at 15 students per adult

• A clear attendance policy and incentives for showing up

• Recruitment and hiring of the district’s most highly effective teachers

• Curriculum anchored in school-year standards and student needs

• Early planning led by a program director who dedicates at least half of their time to this work, beginning in January

After two consecutive summers, students who attended one of these programs for 20 or more days outperformed their peers in math and ELA and displayed stronger social-emotional competencies, the Rand researchers found.

The pandemic provided a perfect opportunity for districts across the country to implement some of these practices, both because students had a heightened need of academic and social-emotional support and because of the unprecedented sum of federal rescue funds that were poured into schools. One-fifth was allocated to with 1% specifically earmarked for summer learning.

Because the money was distributed through states — rather than districts — this also invited them into the conversation, when historically summer programming had been locally driven by schools or other organizations. And this unique moment provided fertile ground for more research, according to Allison Crean Davis, the chief research officer at , who also directed a three-part funded by the Wallace Foundation.

“Never had we seen this natural experiment where it’s like, ‘We’re going to give 1% of these large funds to states to then tee up summer learning … all across the country [and] give some of that money to districts to actually do it,’” she said. “So it just felt like it would be a real missed opportunity not to say, ‘What does this end up looking like? How do states respond?’”

She and her team found that 94% of the local education agencies they studied offered some kind of summer programming in 2021. Of those that did, all implemented academic programming, 59% were traditional “credit recovery” programs aimed at students who had failed and 57% supplemented academic programs with social-emotional learning.

RAND also expanded on its earlier during the pandemic and found that 81% of schools nationwide offered summer programs in 2023, yet districts’ largest summer programs typically enrolled less than half of eligible students and less than 1 in 5 of the largest elementary programs met the minimum recommended hours of academic instruction. 

Despite some of these ongoing trials and errors, summer remains an exciting space for innovation and collaboration, said Julie Fitz, a researcher at the .

“Summer is just an interesting space where you have a little bit of a blank canvas, and states were getting really creative with thinking about how to design that space,” she said.

It also became an area of rare bipartisanship, she added. “It’s just been so refreshing to see people coming together around kids and putting the needs of kids and families first.”

‘Little shy about investing in summer right now’

This is the first summer since the pandemic that most states are navigating summer school without COVID relief funds — and with increased uncertainty about federal education spending more broadly.

While the hope initially was that districts and states would find ways to sustain programming after that fiscal cliff, many remain concerned that even basic “foundational funding” needed to educate students might disappear, Davis said.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if people are a little shy about investing in summer right now,” she said.

This tension became especially apparent on June 30, when the Trump administration announced it would withhold almost $7 billion in previously allocated money, including $1.3 billion for the , which districts rely on to run afterschool and summer programming. The news came one day before schools were meant to receive the money.

“This type of uncertainty — where they thought they were going to have it, and then all of the sudden we’re told the day before they expected to be given it, to no longer have it — is unprecedented,” said Tara Thomas, government affairs manager at

The move disproportionately harmed smaller districts and those serving larger populations of students from low-income families, “because they didn’t have money to float these services while they wait to figure out if the federal government is going to give them the money that they were promised,” Thomas said.

Following widespread, bipartisan pushback, the Office of Management and Budget said on July 18 that the $1.3 billion for afterschool and summer programs, although filed by two dozen states after the sudden freeze alleged critical academic and extracurricular programs had already been “irreparably harmed.”

Despite these hurdles, researchers and district leaders remain excited about where summer learning is headed.

“I think it’s really encouraging and there’s a lot of vision about how summer can be an important tool in the state toolbox in terms of improving educational outcomes and other social focus areas,” said the Learning Policy Institute’s Fitz. “I think it’s really an optimistic area right now.”

Like so many before me, I decided to go into education because of a teacher — in my case, Hillary Hollandsworth, my high school English teacher, who inspired me to wrestle with what sort of positive change I’d like to see in the world and empowered me to dream of what a better world could look like.

I was accepted to the Uncommon Schools Summer Teaching Fellowship program and assigned to teach six high school students world history during summer school in Newark. I always knew I wanted to teach at a school that educates students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, so I was eager to learn more about the curriculum, instruction and classroom management. After seven weeks in the program, I’m fortunate to say that I wasn’t let down.

I had tutored students before, but this was my first experience teaching in a classroom. I was overwhelmed during the first few days. My ice-breakers to get to know the students were a failure, and I was concerned they would think I was too dull and become disengaged. I tried to battle my fear by remembering the practical strategies for effective teaching I had learned in my training, such as how to prepare lessons and respond to students’ mistakes in the moment.

I asked my supervising teacher for guidance. She recommended allowing more time for students to talk with each other in pairs about complex questions that related to my lesson’s content. After making time for more peer-to-peer conversations, as well as having whole-class discussions, I found I was starting to reach the students. I experienced further success after putting in the time to build rapport with students through small acts, like greeting them in the hallway, as well as having lively discussions that gave them a chance to voice their own ideas around the academic content. These discussions were integral to improving student engagement, and it was at those times that I grew the most as a teacher. 

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned is that for whole-class discussions to be productive, students must have a depth of knowledge related to the topic beforehand and have precise guidelines on how to communicate during the discussion. If these prerequisites are met, the insights that emerge from students are surprisingly thoughtful and makes one reassess what young people are capable of understanding.

When students can see the relevance of what they’re learning and connect it to issues they deeply care about, they become passionate and thoughtful. The greatest example I experienced was during a discussion about nonviolent resistance movements and Mahatma Gandhi’s tactics. During the discussion on peaceful resistance, students connected Gandhi’s approach to the current forms of civil resistance that African Americans engage in around police brutality. One student said, “I used to think that violence had to be used. Now I feel like there really is another way.” Another student, reflecting on why Gandhi’s organizing was effective, brought to the attention of the class that “Black people used to be part of a strong community, now Black people are more going solo.” This led to a conversation about the importance of building strong communities and the opportunity to create solidarity among members of different races struggling for justice.

What amazed me even more was that this insightful discussion occurred while I was doing the least amount of speaking, just throwing out a question or occasionally reiterating what students had said. The program had taught me how to enable students to have highly productive discussions, by ensuring they have enough background knowledge and facilitating these conversations to ensure no student is dominating or left out. I gradually grew in my confidence and comfort level in leading the classroom and adding my own flaIr to what I taught. 

I believe that teaching history is part of raising civically minded students. One example was our closing discussion on the Industrial Revolution. After lessons about the horrors of child labor and the abuse of women workers during that period, I asked my students during a discussion about what this history teaches in terms of developing and using technology for social good. To my astonishment, one announced to the class that the inequalities found in the Industrial Revolution occurred because of the lack of democratic input around developing and governing technology. One contemporary parallel they came up with is current issues around cellphones.

It was in moments like this that I felt most connected to my goals around civic education. Over time, as I became more experienced and received feedback from my instructional coach, I was able to help students recognize connections between the past and the present. I also grew in my ability to create a sense of community with my students and to respond to each student’s learning style. For example, some needed multiple verbal recaps of the information, while others needed extra time to read the documents we were studying.

After my training this summer, I am just as committed and proud of how much I have learned to become a better teacher. Now, I can say with pride, that I’m starting to follow in Ms. Hollandsworth’s footsteps.

Those initiatives, created to help the high-poverty district’s students after schools closed during the pandemic, are among the highest-profile cuts out of $91 million proposed by new district CEO Warren Morgan.

Other proposals to cover the loss of an additional $12,000 per student in COVID aid also include ending a decade-long experiment of year-round classes in some schools.

“We got almost $500 million in COVID relief dollars from the federal government that allowed us to do really extraordinary things during an extraordinary period of time,” Morgan said as he announced his plan. “Those dollars go away, creating a little bit of this cliff.. in the financial situation that we’re in.”

A placed Cleveland with the third-highest per-student grants of big cities in the country, after Detroit and Philadelphia.

The exact details of cuts will be set over the next few months. More cuts are expected for the 2025-26 school year.

But the broad plan for cuts outlined by Morgan and which the school board will vote on Tuesday is Cleveland’s first public attempt to sort out which pandemic programs are worth keeping and what older efforts must be cut as a tradeoff.

Cleveland is not alone in having to make cuts as the $190 billion infusion the federal government gave schools through relief grants known as CARES, ESSER and ARPA run out. 

But both the financial boost from pandemic aid, and now the crash, is far more dramatic for high-poverty districts like Cleveland, which has the highest child poverty rate in the country among big cities.

Because the aid formula sent more money to high-poverty districts than affluent ones, the pandemic grants gave the neediest students more help with tutoring, laptops, better ventilation, mental health and other programs to catch up from lost school time. 

The Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University reported in the fall that .The , though enrollment swings the last few years make exact numbers impossible.

“For many of those districts, it made up an outsized percentage of their usual budget, which we think from an equity perspective, was a great thing because it allows those districts to make investments that they have long needed,” said Qubilah Huddleston, who works on school funding issues for the Education Trust. “That said, they are also now faced with making some of the toughest budget decisions that they probably had to make in a while.”

Huddleston also cautioned that other factors, including state aid changing as enrollment fell across the country, are adding to districts’ budget troubles.

”Districts are dealing with a lot more than just the ESSER loss,” she said. “It’s certainly the factor that’s contributing the most, but they have also experienced enrollment declines that they did not expect. They have also inflation, right, things costing more, whether it’s energy, whether it’s labor… happening all at the same time that this loss of ESSER dollars is happening.”

Cleveland has its own local issues affecting how the cuts play out. The district has a new CEO, allowing him to pick his own priorities without being accountable for past promises. The district expected budget deficits in the next few years regardless of COVID and COVID aid, so typical financial needs are hard to separate from those caused by the loss of federal money. 

And the district is negotiating a new contract with the Cleveland Teachers Union, which will add costs, so Cleveland officials have incentive to highlight a lack of money while teachers have incentive to focus on what is still available.

Cleveland Teachers Union President Shari Obrenski said the long-expected cuts are not a crisis and noted that all the federal money may have bought the district an extra year before needing to ask voters for a tax increase.

“This is what I find frustrating about the narrative that’s coming from the district right now,” Obrenski said. “We were able to use our ESSER dollars to make our general fund dollars last longer, which I think was actually a very good idea.”

Some of Cleveland’s proposed cuts hit programs that started using federal aid, while others cut efforts championed by former CEO Eric Gordon that Morgan is re-evaluating.

Morgan has proposed cutting $6.4 million budgeted for providing every student a laptop and providing many with portable wifi hotspots when they do not have internet access at home. So-called “one-to-one” computer programs are increasingly common in suburban districts and was a goal of Gordon for years before the pandemic forced the district to buy devices for remote classes in the 2020-21 school year.

It was a huge step for Cleveland, ranked as the worst-connected city in America by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance.

The district also made continuing this program a key promise of its fall 2020 campaign for a tax increase for the schools.

But Morgan said not all students are receiving laptops and teachers are often not sending them home with students.

The district would not immediately answer questions from ����Ӱ�� about how many laptops or hotspots are included in that estimate or how much progress has been made in attempts to provide affordable internet access in disconnected neighborhoods.

Cleveland’s summer learning program, which took traditional remedial programs and turned them into a mix of classes and fun activities as a way to re-engage students, is also being trimmed. Morgan estimated he can save $30 million over the next two years by cutting the program from 4,225 students last year to 3,500 this year with more class time in shorter days.

Morgan also proposed cutting $34.1 million over two years budgeted for afterschool programs run by outside groups like the Boys and Girls Club or America SCORES, a national program that mixes soccer with poetry. Traditional school athletic teams and clubs are not affected.

A coalition of providers, Clevelanders for Afterschool, has formed in opposition, saying cutting 93 programs from 17 providers will hurt students. David Smith, who runs some programs and is organizing the push to keep them, said they help students emotionally and academically, along with helping reduce crime in the city.

“It’s not a good idea to push these kids out in the streets after school and close the building behind them,” Smith said.

Morgan said he hopes these programs can find other funding or that city recreation centers can fill the gap.

Morgan also proposed saving close to $14 million by cutting extra school days from schools that have classes year-round or extra days in the school year. Gordon started several specialized high schools that focused on topics like STEM, medicine, or aerospace and maritime careers that run through the summer to keep learning momentum with students and avoid summer learning loss.

Those eight schools have 20 additional school days, while another 13 have 10 extra days added to their school years.

Morgan said the academic results of these schools are mixed, even though they receive more money than other schools to pay teachers for extra days.

“Right now, that sets up some inequities,” Morgan said. “We have schools that are receiving disproportionately more resources, more time and school days. Staff are receiving more resources. We do want to really make sure that we are equitable.”

, from at the American Institutes for Research, looked at the academic progress of students who attended summer school in 2022 across eight school districts, most of them urban or suburban, in seven states.

Here are four key takeaways:

1. Finally, a bit of positive news about post-pandemic interventions.

The new paper represents what could be the first encouraging findings coming out of post-pandemic interventions, said CALDER’s . Earlier research , he noted, with few positive effects. “One of my takeaways is that it’s nice to be able to say, ‘Hey, there is something that school systems can do to help kids get back on track,” he said, “even if it’s only making incremental change.”  

2. Summer school works for math … but for reading: not so much.

The researchers found that summer programs had sizable positive effects on students’ math achievement, potentially closing about 2% to 3% of districts’ total learning losses in math, but not in reading. The math gains were “positive and significant,” said Goldhaber, large enough for researchers to suggest that districts consider offering summer math programs to many more students in the future. Reading scores improved in just one of the eight districts.

He noted that research has established that so-called “math effects” due to school interventions are more likely than reading effects. 

“The ‘math but not reading’ is consistent with education research writ large,” he said. Simply put, schools have a more significant impact on kids’ math skills than on reading skills, probably because kids read and write outside of school, but don’t necessarily do math.

3. Post-COVID summer programs are at least as good as those schools operated pre-COVID — and they’re targeting kids who need them most.

Researchers compared impacts of current summer programs to those operating before the pandemic and found that they’re having “about the same kind of impact as summer school programs pre-pandemic,” Goldhaber said. That’s encouraging, since in many districts, summer programs have grown in scale but haven’t suffered in quality, according to the new findings. Any time educators push to scale up interventions, he said, it’s harder to maintain quality. “So it’s encouraging” to see quality stay high. 

He also said the programs they examined typically targeted students who were struggling and actually needed the extra help. 

4. The good news about summer math learning is tempered by the fact that so few students are getting it at the moment.

The CALDER researchers estimated that only 15% of eligible students in 2022 were receiving summer math instruction. That means schools last year were under-utilizing what could have been a powerful, effective intervention.

The positive effects, Goldhaber said, “are kind of dwarfed by the magnitude of the COVID learning losses,” with the small number of students in effect disguising its potential effect on achievement. What could be a game-changer for the moment shows a “pretty small” effect on achievement as a result. 

The new study is part of a larger “Road to COVID Recovery” partnership between researchers at the American Institutes for Research, Harvard University, NWEA and 11 school districts in total. Just eight supplied data to this study.  

Researchers used value-added models to estimate the effect of each of the eight summer programs on MAP Growth test scores, with Spring 2022 as the baseline and Fall 2022 as the outcome. Summer sessions ran from three to six weeks, depending on the program, and daily classes ranged from 45 minutes to two hours.

CALDER’s findings could scarcely come at a better time, with recent NAEP scores suggesting that COVID had a “cataclysmic” impact on K–12 education, coming on the heels of a decade of stagnation. 

Other recent research from Michigan showed that the pandemic slowed students’ math achievement over the three-year period from spring 2019 through spring 2022, with achievement growth “substantially lower” than that of comparable students in the three earlier years.

As with the CALDER findings, the Michigan researchers found that scores for English language arts, which include reading and writing, were small and generally not statistically significant.

In December, researchers from , NWEA and Harvard University, looked at achievement in a dozen mid-to-large sized school districts, enrolling more than 600,000 students across 10 states, and found that between fall 2021 and spring 2022, schools had basically put an end to student achievement declines in math and reading relative to pre-pandemic levels — but that average test score gains during the 2021-22 school year hadn’t moved past pre-pandemic levels.

Students in a few elementary grades improved substantially in math, but beyond a few areas, researchers didn’t find a lot of compelling evidence of recovery in other subjects or grades.

Aaron Dworkin, CEO of the , said he was encouraged by the new CALDER findings, adding that summer programs can often try different strategies “that you might not be able to always utilize” during the school year. 

He noted one successful free program in Detroit called , created by Wayne State University’s math department, that uses an unusual model: College math majors get paid to teach high school students, who get paid to teach middle school students.

The program maintains a fun, playful high-energy atmosphere that catches students’ attention, especially in the summer. “Hundreds of kids and families love it,” Dworkin said. “And they’re so supportive.”

Research shows for kids. Studies by and the found that high-quality summer learning programs can result in meaningful academic benefits, particularly in math, and can help students better connect with their schools and peers. In the face of in math scores and declines in reading, children need this summertime boost now more than ever.

With ESSER funds available this summer and next before they expire, state and district education leaders should seize this opportunity to collect data on existing summer offerings, make improvements and build evidence-based programs in jurisdictions where they do not exist.

A from the can provide a roadmap, highlighting eight design principles – including program duration, attendance, use of time and quality of instruction – that matter most in creating effective programs that deliver strong academic benefits for students. 

How well do these function in practice?

EdResearch for Recovery has spent the last year working with a network of school districts in Rhode Island and two in Tennessee to whether and how evidence-based principles translate into action. This work and a deeper examination of initiatives in show three promising steps districts can take to balance research recommendations with local needs and values. 

Establish values and goals for summer learning programs. Clear values can guide decisions about research-based recommendations, and by setting and measuring progress toward goals, leaders can see how those decisions are affecting desired outcomes. 

Woonsocket used three values — site-based leadership, qualified program personnel and student personalization — to guide its decisions as it evaluated evidence on what works in summer learning. It also established three goals: increase academic learning, improve connection and engagement with school, and strengthen social and emotional skills. 

Know and use the evidence. Research shows students benefit when summer programs hire certified teachers with content knowledge and grade-level experience and specialized support personnel. Woonsocket made it a priority to do this and used money from ESSER to provide extra pay and flexible schedules to summer staff. As a result, while many summer programs across the country, Woonsocket had more than enough teachers applying to work. These initiatives also paid dividends in teacher satisfaction. In a survey at the end of the summer, 100% of educators agreed they had enjoyed teaching in the summer program.

Similarly, following the evidence, Woonsocket invested financial resources to keep teacher-student ratios low. Families saw the benefit of small classes, with 98% agreeing that the program helped children build positive relationships with peers and 95% agreeing that it helped build positive relationships with adults. Teachers also saw the benefits. One noted, “The ability to work with students in small groups without distractions had a powerful effect on student learning.”

When innovating, also evaluate. School districts can have unique circumstances that affect their use of evidence in program design. For example, limited ability for planning, personnel shortages and families’ demands for summer flexibility can conflict with calls for greater academic rigor or more weeks of programming. Districts must evaluate the outcomes of their decisions and quickly pivot if innovations are not working.

For example, district leaders in Woonsocket worried that asking students to commit to a program with at least 20 days of instruction, as is needed for academic gains, would discourage enrollment. Instead, they offered three two-week sessions. This flexible registration schedule led to high enrollment and low attrition across the three sessions. Ultimately, 40% of students enrolled in enough sessions to hit the 20-day benchmark.

Woonsocket also made innovations in program administration and curriculum development. Insteading of following evidence showing benefits in centralized decision making, Woonsocket opted to prioritize empowering site-based leaders and teachers. This led to some communication challenges across the district, specifically with families receiving conflicting or confusing information about how to register students for summer programming. But the autonomy and flexibility energized Woonsocket’s teachers. In a survey, one educator noted, “I had so much fun having more freedom.” At the same time, 95% of families agreed that their child was better prepared for the next school year after attending the summer program. 

No summer program will be perfect. But taking these three steps, drawn from real-world examples, can help district leaders navigate balancing research recommendations and local needs. And like Woonsocket, districts should commit to to understand whether their programs are making a difference for their students.

The pandemic’s devastating impact on student learning provided an opportunity for community leaders in Indianapolis and around the country to think about summer learning differently. Rather than the traditional out-of-school program focus on remediation, students need access to grade-level content in order to truly .

In 2021, The Mind Trust teamed up with United Way of Central Indiana to launch Indy Summer Learning Labs. For five weeks in summer 2021 and 2022, thousands of Indianapolis students attended rigorous, high-quality summer programming designed to ensure the pandemic did not derail their educational futures.

Sites were located both within schools and community organizations, so students and families could choose the option that worked best for them. The results were remarkable. In summer 2022, the labs served 5,000 students at 39 sites across the city. For a second year running, students . Here are some examples of the results:

• A 25-percentage-point increase in basic and proficient scores for English language arts
• A 24-point increase in basic and proficient scores for math
• A 15-point increase in overall English and math scores
• Perhaps most convincing, the Indiana Department of Education commissioned an external study that found learning lab students achieved above their pre-pandemic rates of learning and did better than their peers who did not participate in the program
• 93% of participating families rated their experience as good or great

Importantly, the summer learning labs served a demographically and socioeconomically representative sample of Indianapolis’ student population. In 2022, 79% of participating students were children of color, and 68% came from low-income backgrounds. It is clear that the learning labs served the students who most needed rigorous summer programming. And it served them well.

A key factor in the program’s success was the Lavinia Group’s rigorous , which was customized to match Indiana’s state standards for each grade level.

As a former educator, I understand the impulse to stick with remediation. When you’re working with middle schoolers whose average reading ability is at a third grade level, it’s tempting to give them third-grade material. But this well-meaning tendency actually does a great disservice to the students, who should be afforded opportunities to gain grade-level mastery by accessing grade-level content.

Students who need the most support are too often given remediation when research is clear that what they need is grade-level material matched with adult support. Two years of data in Indianapolis proves when students get rigorous instruction and the support they need, they rise to the occasion and make significant progress.

The summer learning labs were able to produce such transformative outcomes due to three design decisions that supported the use of a high-quality curriculum: the program at all sites was free or low-cost; we hired over 100 licensed teachers to deliver instruction; and the student experience balanced rigorous academics with daily enrichment, such as fields trips, art projects and outdoor recreation. Feedback from families, teachers and the students themselves was clear: Kids wanted to show up, and they learned a lot in just five weeks as a result.

Inspired in part by Indy Summer Learning Labs, New York City took a similar approach last summer, thanks to the leadership of Bloomberg Philanthropies. Summer Boost NYC served more than 17,000 students last summer, with many schools using the RISE curriculum. That proves that this type of summer learning approach is replicable in other cities and potentially a model for other out-of-school programs, such as during spring break or after school.

As for our work in Indianapolis, our vision is that the learning labs will eventually be an independent nonprofit and serve as the enduring academic acceleration engine for the city’s students. To do this, we plan to advocate in the Indiana General Assembly for recognition that continued investments in proven models like Indy Summer Learning Labs are vital for accelerating learning in the wake of the pandemic. Other states and education philanthropists would benefit from pursuing similar strategies. The nation cannot treat efforts to mitigate learning loss as one-off investments and just move on to the next shiny object. It will take a sustained effort over time to achieve the learning gains that students deserve.

Disclosure: The Mind Trust provides financial support to ����Ӱ��. City Fund provides financial support to The Mind Trust and ����Ӱ��.

“It’s actually a little surreal” seeing the rich slate of offerings, said Brodrick Clarke, vice president of the .��

He’s worked at summer learning organizations for over a quarter century, making what used to be a difficult case to school administrators: That districts should offer camp-style July programs to all students rather than enrolling only those who flunked classes during the academic year.

Suddenly, his job has become much easier. 

A growing consensus has elevated summer learning programs to top priority after three consecutive school years disrupted by the pandemic. Several studies, including a 2018 , show camps blending fun and academics give students a leg up in key subject areas. So with millions of students nationwide lagging behind grade level in math and reading, and with schools sitting on billions of dollars in COVID relief cash, summer learning programs have become a go-to solution. 

So far, schools nationwide have poured $3.1 billion in American Rescue Plan dollars into summer and afterschool initiatives, according to an from Georgetown University’s FutureEd think tank. Summer learning has emerged as districts’ “number one priority” for academic recovery spending, said Phyllis Jordan, the organization’s associate director.

“We’re actually investing in programs that we know work and have had results. We just get to do them at a much larger scale because there’s finally funding for it,” U.S. Deputy Education Secretary Cindy Marten told ����Ӱ��. 

“If you put enriching, engaging experiences together for kids and give them a chance to be together, they can learn.”

However, the picture remains murky on just how much progress states, districts and community organizations have actually made toward catching up students before the school year re-starts.

“We do not have data on the number of summer programs this year compared to years past,” said Jen Rinehart, senior vice president of strategy and programs at the Afterschool Alliance. “Similarly, we do not have data on the number of students enrolled this year.”

Marten acknowledged she was not aware of any federal effort to track how many youth are engaging in summer learning programs this year and did not clarify when the results of these programs will come into focus.

To fill the gap, ����Ӱ�� obtained exclusive datasets from , a data service that tracks school policy, and the research-based auditing publicly shared information about districts’ summer offerings. Burbio’s figures include the 200 largest U.S. school systems and CRPE’s cover 100 major metropolitan districts, many of which overlap. Though there are roughly 13,800 districts in the country, the 200 largest account for over a quarter of the nation’s students.

The analysis comes after the Department of Education announced the Engage Every Student Initiative in July to expand access to summer and afterschool offerings. Accompanying the launch, First Lady Jill Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona toured programs in Connecticut, Michigan and Georgia.

The Burbio and CRPE numbers reveal that the vast majority of school systems did indeed provide opportunities for students to catch up on learning and most offered their summer programs at no cost to families. Specifically:

• 93% of districts, according to Burbio, and 87%, according to CRPE, offered summer learning programs this year

• 79% of school systems that had programs provided them at no cost to families

• The average program length was 154 hours, just under four weeks and roughly equivalent to 12% of the academic school year. However, some offerings only covered about 30 hours, while others made up nearly 350 total hours

Additionally, most districts offered programs that went beyond rote academics — including activities such as theater, debate and robotics — and about 2 in 5 worked with community organizations to flesh out their camps. Nearly all programs included breakfast, lunch or both:

• Of the districts that offered summer learning opportunities, at least 83% included credit recovery options, 80% mixed academics with enrichment activities such as sports, arts or social-emotional learning, 48% offered programs for students with learning disabilities and 39% had dedicated options for English learners

• 96% of programs provided meals to children and 74% offered free transportation

• At least 39% of districts partnered with community organizations on summer offerings

The data align with recent figures reported by the , which surveyed a representative sample of 859 public schools in June. The figures are not an apples-to-apples comparison with the Burbio and CRPE data because they focus on individual schools rather than districts, but also point to extensive programming nationwide. NCES found:

• Three-quarters of schools offered learning and enrichment programs this summer

• School leaders estimated that 18-20% of their students enrolled, compared to 13-16% during a typical year

• 49% of education leaders said they partnered with an outside organization, 14% offered internship programs and 13% offered summer jobs or work-based learning programs

“When we talk about academic recovery … you can’t do it just within the regular school day,” said Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators. “You need to make sure acceleration is extra time. The summer has become that time.”

A question of equity

Maritza Guridy, who has five children in Philadelphia public schools and also works as deputy director of parent voice with the , said some families in her network were able to find programs that met their needs while others were not.

“For those that [registered] early, they were able to get in there. For those that waited, it’s unfortunate,” she told ����Ӱ��.

She enrolled her kids in a local chapter of the nationally acclaimed program and also for a shorter stint at an organization called . Among her considerations were aspects like program cost, learning opportunities and emotional supports, but also factors like fun, clear communication from leadership and a building with central air.

In addition to academics, her children have practiced yoga and went for twice-a-week swim lessons at the local YMCA. One day, they came home with a gleeful announcement: “Mommy, I jumped into the deep side of the pool today — and I wasn’t scared!”

It thrilled Guridy, but she knew other families have missed out on similar joys because of barriers such as lack of transportation or no translated information about the opportunity. Guridy wants officials who plan programs to consider accessibility.

“Is [messaging] being offered in different languages?,” she prompts them. “How are parents supposed to enroll their children if they don’t even understand the application?”

It’s an equity issue, said Clarke, the National Summer Learning Association VP.  Youth who don’t have access to summer programs can see academic gains evaporate between June and September, a well-documented concept known as “summer slide.” Now the issue is particularly pressing, because students living in poverty have the starkest pandemic learning deficits.

“Families with access and privilege go into their bank accounts and provide great opportunities for their kids during the summertime,” he said. “The 26 million young people that are on free and reduced lunch … don’t have that luxury to do so. But they certainly need, want and deserve to have those opportunities.”

‘Explosion’ or ‘afterthought?’

With the stakes at an all-time high as schools reel from the pandemic’s impacts, experts have mixed views on whether summer offerings have actually scaled up this year.

“We’re seeing an explosion of programs,” said Ron Ottinger, executive director of , an organization connected to a network of thousands of providers across the country.

Meanwhile, Christine Pitts, who has done her own summer learning analysis as CRPE’s director of impact and communications, has a more pessimistic view.

In 2022, “[districts] were offering less than they were last year. So it’s almost like summer slipped back into that characterization of being an afterthought again,” she told ����Ӱ��.

Her team found that school systems provided fewer offerings for English learners and fewer programs with social-emotional supports this summer compared to last.

“It’s hard to speculate at a national level, why that might have dropped off,” said Marten, the deputy secretary. Some districts may have decided their 2021 summer programs had done enough to catch learners up and that they could scale back this year, she said. However, if leaders wanted to maintain programs but were facing a lack of funds, she encouraged them to tap resources from the new initiative.

Contrasting the data Pitts saw, Nicholas Munyan-Penney spoke to officials in over 30 states about their summer learning programs while researching for a report with . The narrative he heard was of continued growth.

“Anecdotally, they’ve said that there’s definitely been an increase in enrollment this summer,” the researcher told ����Ӱ��.

Rinehart also cites data that indicate an upward trend. In the spring of 2022, her organization and 90% said they were planning to offer summer programs, compared to 79% at the same time a year earlier. Respondents also indicated they expected upticks in enrollment, with an increased share expressing concern they wouldn’t be able to meet families’ demand for programs.

In one of the only direct comparisons between this year and last, the recently released NCES data found no change between 2021 and 2022, with the share of schools saying they offered summer learning programs holding steady at 75%.

‘How are we going to fill the staff?’

One factor often hindering summer learning expansion has been a staff, only the latest symptom of wider shortages that have affected K-12 schools for much of the past year.

“Officials are finding it very hard to find teachers,” said Domenech. “In many cases, the problem has been that where the district has large numbers of kids sign up for the summer programs, they wind up wanting to cut back because they just don’t have the staff to cover it.”

In Madison, Wisconsin, for example, administrators had to from their summer offerings, about 1 in 6 students who had signed up, because of “unanticipated staffing challenges.”

Gia Maxwell works as a site director at summer learning provider . Throughout the spring, she joined monthly calls with leaders from across the Breakthrough network, which operates in 26 cities. Her colleagues were continually worried about finding enough instructors.

“Everyone was talking about, ‘How are we going to fill the staff? How are we going to fill the staff,’” she told ����Ӱ��.

Her Miami program usually finds all 130 youth and 30 adult staff for its summer teaching corps by May, she said. But this year, it took until halfway through teacher training in mid-June to recruit everyone, and they had to hire more teenage candidates than usual. 

The Providence, Rhode Island Breakthrough location was forced to this summer altogether, explaining “we have struggled to recruit students and teachers this year.”

To combat shortages, Arkansas brought in tutors from its to staff summer programs, said Munyan-Penney. In West Virginia, program leaders pulled from teacher training programs in the state to fill out their summer learning staff ranks. And Arizona boosted teachers’ wages 20% for the summer months to entice instructors.

They’re among the states “​​thinking about the staffing issue and being proactive about it,” said the Education Reform Now researcher.

‘Math, Reading and a Little Stampeding’

Several states shared provisional data with ����Ӱ�� on their summer offerings, though many said they won’t have finalized enrollment or academic impact numbers for months.  

In Arizona, Gov. Doug Ducey launched the which state leaders estimate has served about 100,000 campers — 10% of the state’s 1 million students — across 680 sites, including at least one in every county. 

Arizona officials went to great lengths to spread the word about the program. The state ran a including ads on television, radio, social media and in magazines, and direct texts to parents in both English and Spanish informing them of the free programs.

“We targeted lower-income families, as the goal of free summer camp was to see the highest number of campers from families that may not have been able to afford an adventure-style summer camp in prior years,” Kaitlin Harrier, the governor’s senior policy advisor, wrote in an email to ����Ӱ��. 

The governor’s office opted for a “summer camp” approach rather than a “summer school” model, describing the opportunities as “Math, Reading, and a Little Stampeding,” said Harrier.

“It is no secret that when kids are having fun, it sets up a great foundation for learning,” she added.

In Connecticut, the state also rolled out a grant program to help providers beef up their summer offerings and defray program costs for low-income youth. The state disbursed roughly $8 million in grants last summer and increased that sum to $12 million for 2022, said Eric Scoville, communications director for the State Department of Education.

Enrollment across a sample of 121 locations nearly doubled, from 17,000 to 32,000, between 2020 and 2021, according to an spearheaded by University of Connecticut researchers. However, it’s too early to tell how many students the state reached this summer, said Scoville.

In North Carolina, all 115 school districts offered one or more summer learning programs this year funded by COVID relief money, each attended by 30 to 200 students, said Todd Silberman, a public information officer at the state’s Department of Public Instruction. The enrollment figures will not be finalized for several weeks, he said, but he expects the total will be lower than 2021, when the state legislature required math, science, English and enrichment summer learning programs.

At the city level, Baltimore City Public Schools has scaled up its programming sharply thanks to COVID relief dollars. The maximum number of youth the 77,800-student district had served between June and August previous to the pandemic had been 9,000, said Ronda Welsh, the district’s extended learning coordinator. But in 2021, they reached 15,000 and have served at least that many again in 2022.

“Our goal was to provide as many opportunities as we could for students in Baltimore,” Welsh told ����Ӱ��.

Tulsa, for its part, has also cultivated a thriving summer learning culture, part of a wider “City of Learning” initiative that has been in the works for several years. That infrastructure has made the district into a poster child for community partnership, with over 40 youth-serving organizations contributing to the district’s programming this summer — including clubs for debating, biking and rowing.

“The summer is the time that kids get to experience those things they otherwise would not have the opportunity to do, especially during the school year,” said Jackie DuPont, executive director of the , which orchestrates the connections between the nonprofits and the district.

However, the district has not been able to maintain its high summer learning enrollment. Last summer, about a third of its 33,000 students participated in summer learning — an unusually large share. This year, a total of 7,000 youth engaged in the school system’s initiative, Director of Expanded Learning Jessica Goodman estimated. 

“​​Last summer was really an immediate response to not having kids in our school buildings … so some families just needed that time more than they did this summer,” she told ����Ӱ��.

Despite enrollment fluctuations, Marten believes the proliferation of new summer learning programs nationwide will outlast the influx of federal funding.

“Communities will fall in love with these programs,” she said. “They will say, ‘We’re never going to let this stop. We’re not just doing this because there was a pandemic. We’re doing this because this is what’s good for kids. Let’s keep doing it.’”

The course is “Cloudy With a Chance of Science,” and James Ramirez places his hand-fashioned tin foil boat into a bin of water, squealing with excitement as he discovers it floats. The first grader and his classmates are learning about density by testing how many pebbles each students’ contraption will hold before it sinks.

Ramirez tosses in every stone from his first handful — quickly surpassing the class record of five pebbles — and rushes back for more as his boat remains above water. The child, who is reserved and hasn’t spoken yet this period, keeps adding weight, laughing and wriggling his shoulders with each successful placement.

“…27, 28, 29…” 

He has the attention of the class now and his peers count with him.

“…42, 43, 44…”

With each pebble, Ramirez is doing more than proving he crafted a sturdy ship. He is accomplishing something educators across the country are anxiously hoping he and millions of students like him can do: accelerate their learning to get back on track after COVID.

The first grader is one of 481 youngsters enrolled in Baltimore’s Emerging Scholars program this summer and one of over 15,000 students participating in no-cost summer learning opportunities through Baltimore City Schools. Thanks to COVID relief funds, the 77,800-student district is serving more than twice as many young people as its pre-pandemic max of 9,000, said Ronda Welsh, the district’s extended learning coordinator. 

Among the offerings are typical summer school options like credit recovery and career exploration, but also more specialized programs like debate, farm and forest camp, robotics and “Freedom Schools” focused on Black history. The Emerging Scholars program stands out as a camp providing accelerated academic instruction, but with none of the cost or admission requirements typical of gifted programming.

“Our goal was to provide as many opportunities as we could for students in Baltimore,” Welsh told ����Ӱ��. “We wanted students to not only make progress academically, focusing on math and [English], but also the social-emotional aspect as well as enrichment.”

Young people in and nationwide continue to score far below pre-pandemic levels in reading and math tests, with more severe deficits for high-poverty schools. Experts estimate it may take a half-decade to fully recover. Meanwhile, many officials pin their hopes on summer learning efforts like those in Baltimore to make up lost ground.

“Especially because of COVID, the kids are a little behind,” said Claudia Wiseman, a second-grade summer science instructor with Baltimore Emerging Scholars. During the school year, she’s an elementary special educator and said months of Zoom school have meant many young learners still lack basic skills like how to hold a pencil. The students she’s teaching now will be “a little better prepared for second grade,” she hopes.

It’s afternoon pickup time at the Emerging Scholars’ John Ruhrah Elementary School campus, and Ramirez’s mother Christy Miranda arrives. Staff tell her about her son’s latest feat: 63 pebbles.

Miranda beams. The program is helping the family recognize their son’s potential, unlocking academic capacities she didn’t realize he possessed.

“He’s learning a lot,” she told ����Ӱ��. “I didn’t know he had the ability to do so.”

During the year, her son has few opportunities for rigorous coursework, she said, explaining that his school is “very defunded.”

But this summer is different. Baltimore Emerging Scholars is a six-week gifted and talented program. In collaboration with , a global leader in gifted education, the camp provides high-level content in science, math and literacy to rising 1st  through 6th graders. 

“During the regular year, [school] is just teachers rambling on about stuff I already know about … but this is new material,” said rising fifth grader Basil Coleman. “I’m just having a great time here.”

Unlike most other gifted programs, the camp doesn’t rely solely on test scores for eligibility but rather welcomes virtually any student who is up for the challenge. As a result, the cohort of students is more diverse than the group of students identified for gifted lessons during the academic year. Some 68% of summer students are Black, 14% are Hispanic, 9% are white and 3% are Asian — figures that closely resemble district-wide demographic averages.

Rae Lymer, who manages the program and reviews every student application, explained that anytime a student has a recorded assessment at or above grade level, it automatically qualifies the youngster for the program. If such a metric does not exist, the administrator calls families directly, looking for an alternative qualification such as if the applicant likes to ask lots of questions or thinks outside the box.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time, what I hear is, ‘My kid is completely under-challenged and they’re not motivated by school and so that’s why you’re not seeing scores,’” Lymer told ����Ӱ��, explaining that the program almost never turns away motivated students. 

Youth who choose to participate usually rise to the occasion, the data suggest. While the summer program does not yet have numbers on its academic impact, Emerging Scholars also runs afterschool offerings during the fall and spring. In 2020-21, the most recent data available, the share of participants testing at or above grade level increased 18 percentage points in reading and 39 percentage points in math over the course of the year.

“We’re learning advanced stuff and we’re able to get ahead,” said 11-year-old Ama Amoateng, between stints on the playground during recess. “It makes me feel smarter.”

After engaging in the summer program, “many of these kids will become identified [as gifted],” anticipates Stacey Johnson, spokesperson for Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. “It’s reaching kids we wouldn’t otherwise reach.”

Indeed, parent Torrey Parker said his daughter Skylar got “bumped up” in reading and science last school year, which he believes was “absolutely” because of the work she did in the program.

The rapid growth attests to what education scholars have long posited: That academic talent is equally distributed across all students without regard to race, class or gender — but that access to advanced learning opportunities are not. 

“We firmly believe that if opportunities are provided, students will flourish,” said Lymer.

In one reading course focused on mystery novels, rising fifth graders are already 12 chapters into their third book in as many weeks and engaging in what their instructor called “detective work” to predict the ending. In another classroom, second graders concoct oobleck, a water and cornstarch mixture that has both solid and liquid properties, to learn about states of matter and “non-Newtonian fluids.” Down the hall in “Toyology,” first graders study inertia and momentum by unleashing metal and plastic slinkies down a set of stairs.

A classroom of fifth graders peer down the lenses of microscopes at magazine cutouts of the letter “e,” diagramming what they see at various magnification levels. It’s several students’ first time using a microscope and they’re surprised to find what one describes as “static on a TV.”

“They were playing, but they were also learning,” said Toyology instructor Tamika Robinson.

Even the students admit it’s a good time.

“Because it’s called summer school, most of us thought it would be like school … but instead it’s a lot of activities and really engaging,” said Brooke Bennett, 12.

Propelled, perhaps, by rave reviews, the camp has grown nearly three-fold since its 2019 launch and added about 35% new seats this year while transitioning back to in-person programming for the first time since COVID. Staffing challenges, which have of numerous summer programs across the country, haven’t posed a barrier for Emerging Scholars. In fact, two teachers rather than one work in each classroom under its co-teaching model.

“Many of our teachers come back from year to year because they really respect and value their time with our program,” said Lymer.

As the day winds down, a dozen rising first graders arrive at their last class, Social-Emotional Learning. Shoulders slouch and one student’s head is on his desk. They’ve just watched a on how to keep a growth mindset and their instructor Brother Modlin wakes them up with some call-and-response. 

“It’s not ‘I can’t do it,’ is it class?” He asks the question by trailing off. “It’s ‘I can’t do it…’”

“YET,” they exclaim, picking up their heads and once again regaining attention.

Modlin works as a school counselor during the year, but was previously a therapist at a juvenile detention center in the city. 

“My whole thing as a counselor is about growth mindset,” he told ����Ӱ��. “We’re going to have bad situations, especially in Baltimore. … If I give them a growth mindset, they can rise out of any situation without depending on anyone but themselves.”

The lessons are having an impact for 10-year-old Akorede Adekola.

“I feel really confident and relief [after SEL class],” he said. “I get to show my feelings and get it all out.”

The program’s approach, coupling rigorous academic work with emotional supports, could be a promising model, believes fourth-grade instructor Michelle Brown-Christian. She scoffs at the idea that the curricula, fashioned for gifted children, should be reserved for only a select few.

“This could work for any child that wants to learn,” she said.

New research released last month has offered persuasive new evidence of the potential of summer learning opportunities, particularly in STEM subjects. One, a meta-analysis compiling the findings of dozens of prior studies over the last two years, shows consistent gains in math achievement resulting from student enrollment in summer coursework. Another showed participants in a summer STEM program enjoying significant later-life benefits, including greater success in college and higher earnings. 

The papers emerged just as national leaders made a concerted push to broaden access to summer instruction. In July, to spend more of their federal relief funds on tutoring, afterschool activities, and summer enrichment. Next, the Department of Education the Engage Every Student Initiative, a public-private partnership designed to guide local communities toward evidence-based programming. The administration to highlight the work of schools that have expanded their summer offerings.

The campaign demonstrates the promise that many experts see in summer learning — and the enormous academic challenges facing the nation’s schools after three school years disrupted by COVID-19. Along with extended school days and a stiff dose of high-quality tutoring, researchers and policymakers alike are turning to the traditionally vacant summer months as an untapped resource in the battle against academic erosion. 

Kathleen Lynch, an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut and coauthor of the meta-analysis, said the existing research shows not only that summer learning is an effective means of bolstering academic growth, but also a worthy recipient of finite COVID recovery dollars.

“Summer programs provide an opportunity for children to catch up on material they may have missed, or to enrich their learning on new topics aligned with their interests,” Lynch wrote in an email. “I would recommend an effort to replicate successful models over the next few years, as schools and districts continue to combat learning setbacks that children experienced due to the pandemic.”  

Lynch and her co-authors cast a wide net to gather relevant findings from existing research dating between 1998 and 2020, ultimately selecting 37 studies of summer math initiatives that included control groups against whom program effects could be assessed. Programs could be conducted in a school, a community site, or private homes, and while some of the experiments were exclusively math-focused, others provided instruction in other subjects as well.

Participation in the programs significantly lifted children’s math performance. The average effect size of .1 standard deviations (a common measure showing the difference in any group from the statistical mean) in improved standardized test scores compares favorably to other touted learning interventions, such as teacher merit pay and school choice. And the benefits were similar in scope regardless of whether a given program served primarily low-income or high-income children. 

That distinction is critical given the intense diversity of summer learning experiences. Many are operated by school districts on a remedial basis, recruiting (or requiring the participation of) students who struggled academically during the year. Historically, these forms of summer school with poor attendance and low engagement from participants.

By contrast, Lynch noted, “contemporary summer programs increasingly focus on enrichment, hands-on activities, and learning via projects and inquiry.” Such programs, offered electively, are more likely to attract high-achieving pupils from relatively advantaged families.

focused on a particular initiative that attempted to split the difference by signing up high-achieving students from racial or ethnic backgrounds that are historically underrepresented in STEM fields. The program, offered by an elite technical university located in the Northeast, draws a disproportionately nonwhite field of rising high school seniors with top test scores and an average GPA of 3.86. 

Researchers from Columbia Teachers College, the Harvard Kennedy School, and the consulting company Mathematica assessed the effects of three separate varieties of the program: two summer residential periods (one week and six weeks, respectively) on campus, complete with direct coursework in STEM subjects as well as workshops and visits to STEM-focused workplaces, as well as a six-month engagement that was primarily offered to participants online. 

In all, participants from the 2014, 2015, and 2016 cohorts of experiment gained impressive life advantages in the years to come. Across all three summer offerings, students were more likely than members of a demographically similar control group to enroll in college, as well as persist and finish with a degree. Perhaps most importantly, since the program’s top priority was to diversify the STEM pipeline, participants offered seats in the six-week residential experience were 33 percent more likely to graduate in four years with a STEM degree. 

Sarah Cohodes, an associate professor of economics and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and a co-author of the study, said that the experiment provides evidence of a somewhat rarefied type of summer learning opportunity, tailored to students who were likely to enjoy its full benefits. That makes it a limited, though suggestive, window into what can be expected from summer school generally.

“Does it look like what we’re thinking about when we’re thinking about remediating learning loss? No, it doesn’t,” Cohodes said. “But I think you can see this as an existence proof that, yes, carefully designed programs targeted at the right level for students can make a huge difference for their life trajectories, and it is possible to create summer opportunities that change the lives of students.” 

Intriguingly, the study’s findings in terms of college outcomes aren’t clearly attributable to a particular facet of the college program; for instance, graduation rates after five years with a STEM degree were not significantly different in the one-week experience versus the six-week experience. This suggests that the benefits might be attributable to the simple influence of gathering students from traditionally underrepresented groups together on a prestigious campus, Cohodes argued.

“It’s not clear that the learning that made a difference here was standard, ‘I know more physics than I knew before’-type learning,” she observed. “A lot of it seemed to be around knowledge of the college application process, knowledge of what was out there, peer effects and social networks.”

The development of non-cognitive skills and traits was an explicit point of focus in Lynch’s compilation of summer learning studies. Across a range of 37 non-cognitive outcomes (including mindsets and attitudes, social skills, and academic behaviors like school attendance), summer math programs were associated with positive movement in 27; the average effect size for those outcomes was roughly equivalent to the programs’ effects on math test scores and course grades, with notable reductions to school-year absenteeism.

“The number of studies that measured noncognitive impacts is relatively small, but the evidence we found suggested that there’s unlikely to be a tradeoff between learning and noncognitive outcomes from attending summer programs,” Lynch said.

One example singled out in the meta-analysis was the Horizons National Summer Enrichment Program, an intensive summer intervention serving thousands of low-income pre-K–8 students across dozens of affiliates in 20 states. A commissioned by the organization found that its enrollees were less likely to be chronically absent or repeat a grade. A Horizons affiliate in New Haven, Connecticut, on the first lady’s July tour of summer learning and enrichment programs.

As policymakers at the state and federal levels search for tools to restore the academic growth forfeited during the pandemic, they will have access to thousands of existing summer schools, camps, and enrichment activities targeted toward K-12 students of different ages and achievement levels. National Summer Learning Association CEO Aaron Dworkin, who accompanied First Lady Biden on her visit to Horizons, said in an interview that this panoply of approaches — wedded to ample government support — could make a significant impact in the next few years.

“We have a lot of people who are doing what they think is best, but we can support and train them and invest in them so that they don’t have to reinvent the wheel. A lot of people have tried already and learned the hard way. What’s different is that we have a lot of training, data, intermediaries, and infrastructure to support all kinds of people who are trying to be helpful right now.”

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Thursday announced — a partnership with five leading organizations to bring information and research about out-of-school-time programs together into one “centralized, readily available location.” The department will seek applications from an outside organization for a $3-$4 million contract in next year’s budget to run the initiative. 

“We’re at a pivotal point In America’s recovery,” Cardona said during an event in Washington D.C. involving students, education officials and advocates. “If we can reopen school during a pandemic, we can make sure students have access to quality programs.”

The event coincided with National Summer Learning Week, but Cardona didn’t offer specific details on how districts already running this year’s summer programs can benefit.

Coming a week after Cardona joined with White House officials to announce a new effort to recruit 250,000 , the announcement is the latest from the administration to emphasize urgency in addressing learning loss and students’ disconnection from school during the pandemic. According to the department’s release, the effort builds on two decades of funding for afterschool and summer learning programs in low-income schools through the 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants.The department seeks $1.3 billion in the fiscal year 2023 budget for 21st Century funding, an increase of $50 million over 2021 and 2022.

“We know that our young people have lost contact with friends, teachers and mentors over the past two years,” Daniel Domenech, executive director of AASA, the School Superintendents Association, said in a statement. The organization is part of the effort, along with the Afterschool Alliance, the National Comprehensive Center, the National League of Cities and the National Summer Learning Association.

The new initiative can be helpful if it advises states how to use existing federal grant programs to pay for summer and afterschool when American Rescue Plan funding dries up, said Nicholas Munyan-Penney, a senior policy analyst at Education Reform Now. This week, the think tank released on how states are already using relief funds for summer school. 

Experts could also help states and districts evaluate which programs improve students’ academic performance and mental health outcomes so they can “phase out less effective programming,” he said.

But Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a think tank that has tracked districts’ responses to the pandemic, said the additional funding seems small compared to the need to better understand what works. And it comes when the Institute for Education Sciences, the department’s research arm, already doesn’t have enough funding to meet the demand. 

“It feels a bit like a ‘fiddling while Rome burns’ moment for the feds,” she said. “Our students are facing extraordinary needs. Now is the time for a serious and strategic commitment of resources from the federal government for research and development.” 

The Center’s research also suggests districts are doing less this year, not more. Its showed a drop in districts planning summer programming, except for students with disabilities. And in June, the Afterschool Alliance released showing that just one in five afterschool providers has received relief funds.

Last summer, many districts also struggled to hire enough staff to meet the demand, despite pay incentives. And the Afterschool Alliance survey showed two-thirds of program leaders were worried they wouldn’t have enough staff this year. 

Even when districts plan to serve students with disabilities, they often end up cutting back. A Buffalo, New York-area district reduced for special education students because of staff shortages, and the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland shifted its program for about 175 students because of a lack of staff.

Some parents also question whether districts have done enough outside of the school year to move students back up to grade level. Alicia Aleman, who has three children in California’s Fresno Unified School District, enrolled them in last year’s summer program.

“They offer programs for math or science, but they’re only making cookies. They’re watching movies,” she said, adding that low-income families don’t have choices because they are working and “need someone to take care of the kids during the summer.” 

This year, she tried to sign up for a program through the city, but “all the spots are taken by the time the flyers go to the community.”

Fresno Unified, however, has significantly expanded summer programs with $40 million in state funding, boosting enrollment from about 4,000 at a limited number of sites last year to roughly 15,000 this year at every elementary school and middle school. The district is contracting with a range of nonprofit organizations and colleges to offer sports and arts camps, with tutoring built in. 

The funding “allows us to remove historical barriers [like] making kids get on the bus and go across town,” said Jeremy Ward, the district’s assistant superintendent for college and career readiness. “My biggest fear is that we consider this work as a flash in the pan — we influse money for a year or two and then we pull back.”

The effort, called “,” is meant to help students bounce back from the pandemic’s lasting impacts, Bloomberg explained in a joint City Hall address with Mayor Eric Adams.

Stalled academic progress through the pandemic is like “the educational equivalent of long COVID,” said Bloomberg. “The good news is we know how to treat it: extra help and intensive instruction. We’ve got to provide it, and we’re going to start right now.”

The investment bolsters an already ambitious plan for summer learning in New York City. Adams previously announced he is working to expand the city’s existing summer school initiative, “Summer Rising,” from 98,000 children last year to this July — the largest in the city’s history. The mayor also plans to for older students from 75,000 to 100,000.

The city’s Summer Rising program is open to all K-8 students, including those who attend publicly funded charters and private schools, but Bloomberg indicated that charter sector leaders are interested in running their own independent programs.

“The charter schools wanted to take a chance, take the opportunity to try what they’ve been doing during the school year for the summer schools, which they didn’t have before,” said Bloomberg.

Mayor Adams’s endorsement of the program from Bloomberg, who announced in 2021 that he plans to spend $750 million to expand charter schools nationwide, represents a break from his predecessor Bill de Blasio, a stark opponent of charter school growth. The announcement marked Bloomberg’s return to City Hall for the first time in eight years.

“I am not going to be caught up in the conversation of separating children based on the names of the schools they are in,” said Adams. “Every young person, whether they are in district schools or charter schools, they deserve to have a quality education.”

The privately funded $50 million sum will cover seats for 25,000 youth at up to $2,000 per student, with grant applications open now through May 4. There are roughly 938,000 students enrolled in traditional NYC public schools and 143,000 attending charters.

“Every school will be eligible and hopefully every school will apply,” explained Howard Wolfson of Bloomberg Philanthropies. “Our expectation is that the vast bulk of the applications will be approved.”

Ben Samuels-Kalow, founder and head of school at Creo College Preparatory Charter School in the Bronx, which currently serves fifth through seventh graders and will scale to eighth grade next year, was thrilled by the Monday announcement and said he plans to apply for a grant in the coming days. His school ran a math-intensive summer program last August, a model that he said provided an “on-ramp” to the school year, rather than the typical July programming, which can be more on an “off-ramp.”

Should his school receive funds through the Summer Boost grant this year, it will allow Samuels-Kalow to provide additional pay to staff who may be struggling with burnout and fatigue, he said.

“Teachers have had the hardest possible last two years of their professional lives,” he said. “[This grant] is giving schools the material ability to compensate teachers for their time.”

Having a critical mass of educators on site for summer learning opportunities, the former added, “is hugely beneficial for kids and for schools.”

Schools may plan programs that serve up to a third of their total enrollment, with a focus on reaching those who have fallen furthest behind during the pandemic, and can request to expand further if funds are left over after the first round of grants are awarded, according to the initiative’s .

Summer Boost will offer free professional development and English and math curricula from Lavinia Group, owned by the for-profit teacher education company Learners Edge, to participating schools, though they may use their own curricula if they prefer.

Grantees must test students at the start and end of their programs, which are required to run at least 20 days, said Wolfson. Bloomberg Philanthropies is contributing about two-thirds of the initiative’s budget and private donors, including the Carson Family Charitable Trust and the Gray Foundation, are covering the rest.

Representatives from the KIPP charter network, which operates 18 public charter schools in the city, declined to comment on whether their campuses intend to take advantage of the Summer Boost program.

School leaders interested in learning more about the program can join one of several offered late April through early May.

Schools in the state have access to for summer school due to an influx of state and federal dollars. But district leaders say they may be limited in what they can offer students because of the teacher shortages that have waylaid schools throughout the year.

Last summer, Oregon schools used just half of an extra helping of state money for summer school and a fraction of the more than $1 billion provided from the federal government.

School leaders told the Capital Chronicle this was due to a combination of poor timing, staffing issues and ongoing concerns over in-person instruction during the pandemic. 

Now, with summer approaching, schools once again have a record amount of money for summer school programs. The Capital Chronicle reached out to dozens of superintendents across the state to learn what they planned to offer students this summer, and whether they still faced the limitations of last year. 

Officials at bigger districts, such as Portland Public Schools and the Salem-Keizer School District said they were planning some of their most ambitious summer programs yet.

Despite efforts to keep kids fully engaged virtually, educators have realized that students at all levels are behind where they would otherwise be in their learning.

“The reality is that we’re trying to address 18 months of kids learning at home,” said Ryan Vandehey, a media relations officer for Portland Public Schools, of the gaps summer programs hope to fill.

Some districts were preparing to host job fairs and hire high schoolers to provide summer programming. Leaders of some smaller districts said they had no plans to offer summer school.

More money than ever

Last year, Oregon lawmakers approved $205 million for summer programming, with the goal of helping students catch up after a year-and-a-half of online school. It was more than districts had ever been given for summer school. On top of that, the federal government allocated $200 million to be spent on addressing pandemic-related learning losses, the money available until 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The Oregon Department of Education instructed districts that summer school would be an ideal use of that money.

Why didn’t more get spent last year?

According to data from the state Education Department, just $4 million of the $200 million in federal dollars was reported by schools as used for summer school. That number is likely too low because of how schools classified expenses, according to Mike Wiltfong, director of school finance at the Education Department. 

“For accounting purposes, it comes down to how they coded the resources,” Wiltfong said. If they hired teachers for a summer program, “they might have put that under ‘staff’ instead of ‘summer school’” when they submitted their reports to the department for reimbursement.

And schools spent just half of $200 million in state funds made available last year for summer school. District leaders say that’s because the Oregon Legislature didn’t adjourn until the end of June, meaning the state funding wasn’t available to schools until well into the summer, when programs were already underway.

State data show that 161 of the state’s 219 school and education service districts utilized the extra state money, according to the state Education Department, along with hundreds of community programs.

Last summer, more than 100,000 students took part in programs, compared with 13,000 during the summer of 2020.

This year, state Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, and Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, got lawmakers to roll over the unspent $100 million and add $50 million to bring summer school spending up to $150 million for this summer. 

Dembrow said he expects more performance by schools this year, that it’s “important it be done right this summer and fully utilized.”

Of the $150 million, $100 million will go to schools and education service districts and $50 million will go to community groups through the Oregon Association of Education Service Districts, a coalition made up of the state’s 19 education service districts. 

Smaller districts struggle with staffing 

In the North Marion School District, located between Portland and Salem and serving about 340 students, Superintendent Ginger Redlinger wrote over email, “Our challenges are similar to those of other districts: teachers and support staff are burned out as most districts have been short staffed all year.”  

Redlinger said her district has been suffering shortages of teachers in general, and ones that can teach at different grade levels and subjects. 

The district will provide programs to help high school seniors get on track to graduate, and have summer school programs for elementary age students paid for through the federal Migrant Education Program. Otherwise, Redlinger can’t use the extra money unless she can find staff.

In other small districts such as Douglas County, Paisley, Klamath County and Harrisburg, summer programming won’t be a certainty until they figure out staffing. Harrisburg Superintendent Bryan Starr said by email that “the extent of the program offerings will depend on how many teachers we can get to stay on for summer work.” 

In Klamath County, district officials are “experiencing limited people who are interested in teaching in the summer,” according to Superintendent Glen Szymoniak, who said they are still recruiting. 

In the Reynolds School District in east Multnomah County, Steve Padilla, assistant director of public relations, said the district will hold a job fair this weekend to recruit summer school staff. He said district leaders also are gauging how many current employees want to teach over the summer.

With “the stress of being a teacher in the last few years, in covid, many want to take the time off,” he said. 

Padilla said demand from parents for summer programs for their kids is high and they’ve partnered with several community organizations to help carry out classes and camps. 

Recruiting the high schoolers

One way districts plan to get around staff shortages is to recruit high school students to teach or supervise classes. 

In Hillsboro, student interns from the district’s Career and Technical Education program will be paid to help teach students skills such as graphic design and robotics as part of a career class. 

In Salem-Keizer, Nicole Spearman-Eskelsen, who oversees the district’s summer programs, said they’ll also pay high schoolers to staff camps and classes for elementary school students. She said the high schoolers “come with a background in the arts and use their technical skills to inspire the younger generations.” 

In Umatilla, after school director Stephanie Williams-Strege wrote that most staff who helped with summer programming in 2021 have expressed an interest in returning to teach this summer, including high school seniors they had hired to help out. Williams-Strege said they would recruit high schoolers again this year. 

Some will forgo summer school all together

In the Fossil School District in north-central Oregon, which serves just over 1,300 students, there will be no summer school. Superintendent Jim Smith said it was not needed since all of the district’s high school students are on track to graduate on time. 

In the Cove School District east of La Grande, where one school building serves about 290 students, Superintendent Earl Pettit said district officials learned a valuable lesson last year. 

“One can create the most robust and engaging programs for the summer but if students don’t want to participate and have other things to engage in during summer, those programs will not work well,” he said in an email.

The district’s programming last summer was poorly attended, and student interest was low, he said.

“Perhaps in a suburban or urban atmosphere such programs would be more well-received,” he said.

This summer the district will offer only internet-based classes for high schoolers who need credits to graduate. 

Big districts with big plans

In Salem-Keizer, schools will provide programs for high schoolers, jumpstart programs to prepare new kindergarteners, middle and high school students for the next year, and camps focused on the arts, according to Spearman-Eskelsen.

Historically, Hillsboro School District has just offered classes for credits during the summer. This year, the district will use extra state and federal money to add students enrichment classes in math, literacy and language development, according to Travis Reiman, assistant superintendent of academic services. 

Portland Public Schools will use $9 million of federal funding and $8 million of state summer learning money to pay for programs. 

“Last summer we made a big push to have an intensive set of options,” according to Vandehey, “and this year we have a massive suite of extracurriculars with the additional dollars.”

A push for year-round school

Dembrow and Courtney see robust summer school funding as a stepping stone to year-round school. They plan to continue advocating for hundreds of millions in summer school funding. 

In February, Courtney that, “In the end, it’s the beginning of really talking about a full year of school.”

Vandehey said school officials are considering how they can sustain such summer programs in Portland going forward “for at least next few years if not indefinitely.” Vanderhay said turnout for credit recovery programs and enrichment classes and camps was high last year and is expected to be so this year.

“There was a lot of positive response. There were waiting lists last year on some of the programs,” he said.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Les Zaitz for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on and .

How will this chaotic school year have affected them?

Recent findings from the University of Pennsylvania warn that over the next three decades, our recent COVID-related U.S. school closures, as well as the shift to virtual schooling, could massively impact our national gross domestic product (GDP), putting a huge dent in future workers’ earning potential.

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The damage from all that reduced schooling could hurt productivity and shrink the U.S. economy 3.6 percent by 2050, economists say. The results will be even worse for workers’ personal earnings.

The new estimates come from the nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model, an initiative that examines public policy through an economic lens. The suggests an expensive remedy: extend the school year.

Adding just one month of summer school, they say, won’t be cheap: about $75 billion, likely financed through the federal government taking on more debt. But they note that the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill passed in March provides to K-12 public education, with about $22 billion already earmarked for summer school, extended school days, an extended school year, after-school programs and “other enrichment.”

Spending billions on extending the school year, the economists say, could help mitigate learning losses, shrinking GDP loss about half a percentage point, from 3.6 to 3.1 percent. That smaller GDP reduction would produce a gain of $1.2 trillion over the next three decades, equal to about $16 for every dollar spent on more summer school.

That affordance “gives the kids a few extra hours for them that they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise,” said Penn’s , the brief’s lead author. “We include that in their productivity, in their learning capacity. And then, once they come to adulthood, that gets incorporated in their ability in the labor market — that is, the wages they were going to make.

Her team estimated the relative effectiveness of virtual versus in-person schooling using previous studies that looked at the math skills of students enrolled in the different learning modes.

They also estimated how much a year of learning loss corresponds to later productivity. Looking broadly at and federal , they estimated that graduates’ future labor income shrank by 10 percent for those who missed a year of middle school or high school. For those who missed a year of elementary school, it was even worse, 13 percent.

Recently approved federal aid could actually make the Penn prescription happen, in at least a few places. The American Rescue Plan includes for K-12 schools with high levels of low-income students. Districts must spend at least 20 percent addressing learning loss. States, which can hold on to 10 percent of the money the federal government gives, must also spend at least 5 percent of it on learning loss, and at least 1 percent on summer learning.

Thomas Dee, an economist and Professor at Stanford University, said he’s glad researchers are conducting analyses like this, but said the Penn analysis “seems to embed the assumption that an extension to the school year will have the same effects as a school does on average.” That may not be a valid assumption, he said.

Dee said the framing of the policy choices “seems to preclude other options” like tutoring and conventional summer learning programs. Extending the school year could also be difficult, since it requires schools to restructure curricula and figure out staffing, among other challenges. And it ignores well-researched summer and tutoring programs that are proven to support students, he said.

Dee and two colleagues last year looked at a long-established that serves low-income middle school students “and features unusual academic breadth,” as well as a social emotional curriculum. The researchers found that participating in the program led to fewer unexcused absences, lower chronic absenteeism and suspensions, and a modest gain in reading scores.

Acosta, the lead author of the Penn analysis, said the “what-if” of extending summer school presented an interesting exercise. Normally, economists would ask what happened if a group of students got more education. “In this case, because of the whole COVID environment, it’s the opposite,” she said. “We want to know what happens if you give up one year of your education.”

Acosta’s team tweaked the formula to account for the benefits of virtual schooling, which were enjoyed more by some students than for others. Then they “fast-forwarded” nearly 30 years and compared projected wages to what could have been.

“People are making less money — that means that they are less productive,” Acosta said. “And in an aggregate model, where we want to see what happens to the full economy, it’s as if we said, ‘Well, you didn’t have enough education. You don’t know how to perform some of the tasks, or something was disturbed in your learning process.’”

The team actually proposed a series of interventions, from extending both the 2021-22 school year and the 2022-23 school year, just extending the 2021-22 school year, or narrowly targeting the aid to offer a longer school year just to “economically disadvantaged” students nationwide. That more focused aid would reduce the cost to $25.6 billion, though the benefit would be slightly smaller.

But it could benefit individual students powerfully: The economists project that today’s low-income middle- or high school students could earn, on average, 8.2 percent less in 2050 because of the closure. Today’s low-income elementary school students could earn 10.9 percent less.

Though the results are surprising, Acosta said, she hasn’t had any peers in academia challenge the figures so far “because they’ve been fairly in line with what the literature has said” about education, productivity, and the experiences of students the past year during the pandemic. “It’s an entire generation that lost almost a full school year.”

Just your typical summer vacation shenanigans, but with a twist: It’s all at school.

This July, over 11,000 students in Tulsa, Oklahoma — about a third of the district’s total enrollment — have returned to academic buildings for fun-filled programming that explodes the typical conception of summer school.

“I did summer school before and it was really boring,” said Tulsa rising sophomore Jesse Skocny. “This one isn’t. It’s a lot of fun.”

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At his North Star Academy, students tend to an organic garden every morning complete with cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes. Twice a week they take field trips, including a recent visit to a local Mexican restaurant where, in addition to sampling the tacos, students learned what it takes to run a small business.

“It’s a different animal, it’s not all academic,” Mike Easley, assistant principal at North Star, told ����Ӱ��.

That shift in emphasis is by design, says Tulsa Deputy Superintendent Paula Shannon. After a year that’s been challenging for everyone, the district’s top priority this summer is to help reignite students’ enthusiasm for learning.

“Academics are important. We want to help kids with unfinished learning, but that’s not what we’re leading with,” she told ����Ӱ��. “We’re leading with fun.”

As national leaders including U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on the heels of a year marred by the pandemic, and with earmarked for summer enrichment activities, Tulsa Public Schools has seized the moment, delivering learning opportunities to students in tandem with community building and joy.

Its “Ready. Set. Summer!” initiative includes programs at nearly every campus in the city, available at no cost to families, with meals and transportation provided. Over 4 in 5 students served by the school system are economically disadvantaged, and 37 percent of all students are Hispanic, while 23 percent are Black, another 23 percent are white and 17 percent are Asian, Indigenous or multiracial. Enrollment has when the district last held in-person summer school, with a focus on remediation.

‘Connection before content’

With the district’s all-new summer camp-style approach, the goal is to “develop relationships and help [students] ease back to in-person learning in the fall,” Twanna Johnson, a social worker at Memorial High School, told ����Ӱ��.

At her site, activities range from strength training and yoga to leadership development and writing rap music, on top of opportunities for students to make up credits. One particularly unusual offering, however, stands out: medieval fight club.

With rules similar to tag, students dart after one another bellowing battle cries and chopping with padded swords in a semi-controlled chaos — delighting youth who initially doubted whether they would actually be allowed to joust on school grounds.

“My expectation was to sit down in front of a whiteboard and just learn about history on medieval sword fighting,” rising sophomore Trevor Wilhite told ����Ӱ��, breathing heavily after coming off the battlefield. “I didn’t know we would actually grab swords and go out.”

With about two weeks under his belt, his feelings toward the activity are not ambiguous. “If you ever have heard the expression of a child in a candy store, it’s basically that times 1,000,” Wilhite said.

In the midst of the melee there’s room for learning, says Heath Miller, band director and fight club faculty lead. Every so often, he pauses the combat to offer a fact for context on the activity and “trick them into learning something about medieval history,” he said.

As unconventional as the approach may seem, it actually aligns with best practices for summer learning. A 2018 study from the RAND Corporation recommends districts to make sure, first and foremost, that students are engaged and enjoying themselves.

That also reflects the needs expressed by families, says Jennifer Peck, chief executive of the Partnership for Children & Youth.

“It’s been loud and clear from parents,” she told ����Ӱ��. “They want their kids to have fun.”

Especially coming off a year that took an unprecedented toll on teens’ mental health, schools should work to meet students where they’re at, says National Summer Learning Association CEO Aaron Dworkin. His mantra, he told ����Ӱ��, is “connection before content.”

Tulsa, it seems, has done well on that front — even among its teenage “knights” and sworn enemies.

Coming in after a session of spirited combat, “we’re still all like a giant dysfunctional family,” Wilhite said.

‘This summer is part one’

The focus on connection with students was enough to entice Branden Grimes, science teacher at Booker T. Washington High School to come back for the summer.

“It’s for the kids,” he told ����Ӱ��. “I didn’t have to think twice.”

But another key incentive certainly didn’t hurt, added his colleague, English teacher Tametra Jamison: extra pay.

She’s making twice as much as she does during the school year, the educator said. Even after Oklahoma teacher walkouts in 2018 protesting the state’s low wages and poor working conditions — part of the nationwide “Red For Ed” movement — resulted in , Jamison normally has to pick up a second job during the summer to make ends meet. But funding from the CARES Act changes that, allowing the district to boost teachers’ summer stipend rate from about $30 to $40 per hour, Dept. Superintendent Shannon told ����Ӱ��.

Many teachers volunteered to staff the summer program, says Jamison, but because the school got a late start on promoting the offerings to students, their enrollment did not reach full capacity and they ultimately cut back on certain planned activities.

“It would be really awesome if we’re able to do this again next year, but also kick start the promotion of it earlier so that we have more kids who are signed up,” said Alison Campbell, math teacher at Booker T.

Fortunately for the team of high school instructors, some key players think similarly.

“We will continue to apply the lessons we learned this summer through our afterschool component as we enter the school year and then that will set us up for next summer,” said Shannon, noting that relief funding is designed to last three years. “This summer is part one.”

Into the future, the district is investing in partnerships with community groups, all through a “quarterback organization” called the Opportunity Project that serves as a liaison, so that it can deepen afterschool and summer options for its student body, she said.

In Tulsa and beyond, Peck, of the Partnership for Children & Youth, advocates for the fun-first summer learning model to stick around.

“This shouldn’t be a one-time thing how we’re doing things this summer,” she said. “This should be here to stay.”

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona doesn’t expect to see more enrollment loss in public schools this fall, but said educators must “work twice as hard” to rebuild the trust of some families after a year of remote learning and reopening delays.

“I am confident that everyone wants to return back to school and that schools are doing their best to get students back in. I know in some places it wasn’t quick enough for some families,” the secretary said last week in a brief conversation with ����Ӱ��. “What we have to ensure is that we’re following the guidelines to make sure that our schools are safe and that we’re engaging our students and families in ways that we haven’t in the past.”

Cardona said he recognized the challenges districts are facing in trying to make up for lost instruction. While he’s encouraged by what he’s seen during his recent visits to summer learning programs, he added that some districts will need to work harder to strengthen connections with other organizations so students can get the “accelerated support” they need to overcome the pandemic’s impact.

“I’ve seen examples of it already — where schools are really stepping up to give students a good opportunity to engage socially and academically,” he said. “I’m expecting with full, in-person options for students that the sense of community and the sense of family that our students and families are longing for, that they’re going to get it.”

Schools, Cardona said, also need to be specific with parents about what safety precautions they’ll be taking this fall.

“I know some schools had major issues they had to address in terms of ventilation systems or ensuring that the environment was safe,” he said. “At the end of the day, this is a health pandemic. We want to make sure that schools are safe for our students and our staff.”

And they should be clear about the opportunities they’re offering to help students make up for instruction they missed last school year, he added.

But the pandemic and learning loss aren’t the only reasons some parents have grown dissatisfied with schools over the summer. some parents want to see different learning options for their children when school starts this fall. And others are outraged over how districts are addressing issues of race and equity in the classroom, with debates dominating school board meetings from coast to coast.

Reiterating what he’s told House members during recent budget hearings, the secretary said the topic has become politicized. But he sympathized with administrators facing pressure over the issue and said he wants to shift attention to the resources schools now have to make school improvements.

Superintendents, “have shown tremendous leadership reopening schools during a pandemic,” he said. “They did their best to make sure that our students got the support that they needed. I don’t just mean a laptop and broadband access, which is in itself a challenge, but making sure our students were fed, making sure that they had the social and emotional support. We owe it to our education community to stand behind them.”

In recent weeks, the secretary has visited summer learning programs in Los Angeles, New Jersey and Oregon, and said even though some districts to find enough staff to work over the summer, he said he’s seen strong examples of schools and nonprofit organizations sharing the responsibility for summer learning.

At the virtual reopening summit Cardona held in March, he said he “jokingly” warned educators that he didn’t want to see students doing any “ditto” sheets this summer and that he hoped for engaging programs that interest students while shoring up some of the academic skills they’ve missed over the past year.

While he said he saw some students writing words on a whiteboard in a classroom in Portland, he said he was happy to report, “I have not seen any worksheets.”

In April, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the creation of Summer Rising. Per the city : Summer Rising programs are full day and in-person experiences. All programs will… give parents peace of mind as they return to work. All K-8 students participating in programs will have access to academic classes and enrichment programming.

On June 28, Hizzoner proudly tweeted:

More than 200,000 NYC kids are now signed up for Summer Rising, our unprecedented effort to reach young people and help them make up for time lost due to .

There’s still time to sign-up! Summer programming begins on July 6.

— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor)

De Blasio had that a Summer Rising seat would be available for every child. His tweet led many to believe he was saying all who’d applied were accommodated.

Dozens of families had found that untrue.

My in-box quickly filled up with emails from parents:

KOS: I still to this day haven’t received an email response from the school and program if my son has been accepted. When I applied, it stated that it should take about 5 business days to get a response but it’s been more than a week and a half. I signed on yesterday to see what’s going on and the application still says “submitted.”

DY: City’s information suggested every child would be able to attend a program they selected. In reality, it is every child will be assigned to a program but no guarantee as to where. We applied to all the programs in our area. All programs advised us that we were either rejected because of capacity, or waitlisted. 

XA: My home school told me I was supposed to apply to a specific local school. There were 4-5 schools told to apply to this same school. I got an email saying they had over 500 applicants but only 120 spaces. I emailed to find out his place on the wait list to see if there was any hope. I was told that they were entirely overwhelmed and hadn’t even organized a wait list. 

JJ: Yesterday I got 2 emails confirming my children’s placement in Summer Rising. I did not sign up or register for Summer Rising. 

After frustrated parents barraged the DOE, on June 30, the New York Daily News dropped a bombshell: All waitlisted students would now have to be accepted — but there weren’t enough teachers for them all.

A little more Summer Rising chaos to go w your election chaos.

Per DOE today, schools now required to accept everyone on their waitlists, potentially doubling size of some sites + sparking big new staffing challenges 5 days out:

— Michael Elsen-Rooney (@MichaelElsenRoo)

According to : Principals say many of their schools are already overcrowded and understaffed, after the city guaranteed enrollment without a plan to properly place everyone.

A teacher emailed me to confirm, “Our school had about 159 seats available to serve 5 local schools. Only 3 teachers applied. THREE. Because they’re burned out and need a break. Administrators also need a break. This is so incredibly unfair and ridiculous to ask of them with 5 days to go. It’s also unfair to kids — who’s going to teach them? They deserve more than to just be supervised in a jumbo-sized cohort by a tremendously overworked teacher for the summer.”

Families did their best to remain optimistic:

VC: I think the hours (8 a.m.- 6 p.m.) are amazing. It gives me the space and time to do whatever it is I need to get done (in terms of work, household, etc).

JK: I enrolled my girls. Now, all we have left to do is to start it and enjoy it.

That optimism lasted until the morning of the first day, Tuesday, July 6:

JL: The DOE once again overpromised but underdelivered. We were notified on July 1 our child would now have a place for the entire summer from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. He was taken there this morning only for us to find out the school had not been notified all these students from all over the [Upper East Side] would be attending and the school did not have the funding. Therefore, instead of an 8-6 p.m. program we are to pick up our child at 12:00 p.m. today. Thankfully he had breakfast at home otherwise I don’t even think he would be fed. 

PD: We went to school today morning. But did not find her name in the list. They asked to go here, there. No one knows where is that list. Finally one lady took our name and email copy (from DOE) and asked us to go back to home. Someone will contact us later. Not sure when will it be. We planned so many things as assumed she will be in school. God knows what is the going forward from here.

Remember when we were assured NYC schools were ? They were not. Well, now we’re being told they’re even more . The same way we were told they were prepared for Summer Rising.

This botched rollout doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. And it makes us parents of public school students very nervous about the year to come.

Alina Adams is a New York Times best-selling romance and mystery writer, the author of Getting Into NYC Kindergarten and Getting Into NYC High School, a blogger at and mother of three. She believes you can’t have true school choice until all parents know all their school choices — and how to get them. Visit her website, .

Christopher Ochoa of McAllen, Texas, has loved mathematics since he was a young child, his interest fueled by summer-time math camps and trips to Space Center Houston.

The high school senior’s strong work ethic helped him manage his ADHD, dyslexia, and sensory overload well enough to earn stellar marks and gain entry to Texas A&M University.

But during the pandemic, both his grades and his academic confidence plummeted.

“When you’re in the classroom, you can ask a question, go to the whiteboard with your teacher and he’ll work through it with you,” the 18-year-old said. “Now, when you ask a question, you have to unmute your mic and you can’t see the teacher face to face or make eye contact. It’s just not the same. There isn’t that physical interaction.”

Teachers say pandemic-related setbacks in mathematics will linger well into the coming school year, especially for students who suffered the most during shutdowns. Unable to peer over their students’ shoulders and correct their work, math teachers lost the ability to offer on-the-spot tutorials. The results showed: A November NWEA of fall 2020 test scores for nearly 4.4 million children in grades 3 through 8 found they lagged 5 to 10 percentage points in math compared to students in the prior year.

Chase Nordengren, a senior research scientist at NWEA, said math-related learning loss in the upper elementary and middle school grades has been stark, mirroring what happened to students who suffered through .

He’s unsurprised by the timing: It’s in the later elementary years that students tackle computational arithmetic and conceptual thinking — including fractions and ratios — for the first time. “It’s not hard to imagine those skills are more difficult to teach remotely,” he said.

Matthew Reames, a fifth grade math teacher at Daniel Morgan Intermediate School in Winchester, Virginia, said distance learning has hindered some students’ ability to build their skills.

“The way the standards are set up, the kids really need to master every single thing in that grade to be successful the next year,” Reames said. “Even if you are missing one little thing, it might amplify itself later on.”

Other subjects, including science, don’t face the same hurdles, he said.

“If you don’t understand the water cycle, that won’t put you at a disadvantage with magnets,” he said. “You might have gaps in what you know but it is not a specific skill. Math is a whole lot of skills and concepts that build on themselves from year to year. There is not really anything you can leave out. And that’s true whether you are in a pandemic or not. Each year, we look for these gaps.”

And there are other challenges, too, as the pandemic lingers and even worsens in some areas. Trevor Doyle, a middle school math teacher in Camino, California, remains on a hybrid schedule a year into the crisis. Students attend school in the mornings or afternoons for just three hours, four days a week, with Mondays reserved for planning and meetings. It’s simply not enough time to keep them on track, he said.

Doyle is not new to the profession. He’s taught mathematics for 18 years, including three at Folsom State Prison. But nothing could prepare him for the challenges brought on by distance learning.

He believes 80 percent of his students will have made up for what they lost during the next school year.

But he’s less optimistic about the remaining 20 percent. It could take that group twice as long because the school could not offer on-site remediation during shutdowns. Prior to the pandemic, struggling students were invited to school an hour early and for another 45 minutes after the last bell rang — in addition to working through lunch.

Now, a sizable portion of his students are floundering, including those who struggled in school prior to the shutdowns and whose parents are unable to hold them accountable for online coursework.

“It’s that middle-of-the-road kid who needs that extra push, who is the furthest behind,” he said.

Summer school might help, Doyle said. President Biden’s American Rescue Plan requires states to invest at least $1.2 billion in summer enrichment programs. Doyle’s own district saw a fourfold increase in such spending, and is planning an intensive summer program focused almost solely on academics.

But he does not expect it will make up for all that was lost.

“A lot of teachers are expecting to reteach material at the beginning of next year,” Doyle said.

Yvonne Calderon said it’s not only those children from disadvantaged backgrounds who are struggling during the pandemic. Even more well-off students have lost ground. Calderon teaches 7th grade mathematics at an affluent private school in Tempe, Arizona, one that has been in-person most of the school year.

All of her students have experienced at least some trauma related to the pandemic, she said. Several told her they suffer from anxiety and many are having difficulty retaining what they’ve been taught.

She’s found herself reteaching concepts these students should have mastered years ago.

“Despite wealth, these children still face challenges within their own families,” Calderon said. “I have years of experience in teaching math and I have never seen this before.”

Danilsa Fernandez teaches middle- and high school algebra at City College Academy of the Arts in New York City. Dubbed a master teacher by the non-profit Math for America, a New York City-based group that supports educators and improves retention, she stayed on task for much of the school year until a pandemic-related closure in mid-March.

But even after her students returned, she had reason to revisit concepts she’d taught before: The transition back to in-person learning allowed her to see more of her students’ work, which reflected their inability to master key concepts.

“Mistakes that were easily hidden behind a computer screen were now in full display,” she said. “I decided it would benefit the students to re-discover some topics without rushing through the material.”

Eighth grader Jaslyn Ovalles is one of Fernandez’ students. She struggled mightily with online learning: Her grades dropped sharply across every subject.

“It’s hard when you are at home because you are in your own environment,” said Jaslyn, 13, who spent part of each day looking after her four younger siblings. “Not all of your teachers require you to turn on your camera, so you can use your phone, watch TV while you’re sitting in your bed or on the couch. It’s easy to fall asleep.”

Once she returned to campus, Jaslyn’s grade shot up almost immediately.

“If I could just get my grades up in science, I’d be passing all my classes,” she said.

Nordengren, of NWEA, advises teachers to take the time to understand each child’s abilities and be sure not to waste precious time reteaching concepts they have already mastered or skipping ahead to topics for which they are unprepared.

He said parents can help, too, by incorporating math in their everyday life — grocery store check-out lines can provide a great opportunity to consider addition, subtraction, percentages and other, more complex topics — and by not speaking negatively about the subject in front of their children.

“If you have a parent that says, ‘I’m not a math person,’ or ‘We are not math people,’ that will put that deficit mindset into a kid’s brain,” Nordengren said.

Ochoa never had that problem, until now. He’ll spend his summer working with a tutor trying to undo it.

And while he was thrilled to gain entry to Texas A&M, he made a last-minute switch to the University of Oklahoma, a smaller school that would offer him far more academic support, something he values after such a difficult year.

“Whatever I missed in online learning, I can learn there and be better prepared,” he said. “I’d rather be ahead than behind.”

For so long, educators and youth advocates have dreaded summer slide, the deterioration of skills over summer, when children without access to enriching activities fall further behind their peers. This is the year to change that. The pandemic is widening the racial equity gap for children of all socio-economic backgrounds — it’s the perfect opportunity to extend the traditional school year and have academic enrichment this summer that can close this persistent divide.

Picture this: With all the disruption of this COVID-plagued school year, students could get another several weeks of learning, probably outside, in camp-like settings, where they could creatively work on math, science, writing, reading and the arts, get meals and snacks every day and engage in physical activity. It’s the right time and the right solution for bridging the gap, particularly for Black and Latino students.

It’s also a long-needed solution for working parents. Many have struggled to keep their jobs and paychecks during the last year. So, come summer, if students go to vigorous, engaging programs to catch up or continue learning, then their parents can work with less worry about their children. That valuable extra time can make up for what was missed amid the frenzy of on-again, off-again remote learning, hybrid classrooms and in-person disruptions. With about 20 percent of Boston public school students not even logging into school, there is a large population that would benefit from more structured time.

My organization, YMCA of Greater Boston, along with our partner groups — Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA), The BASE and Latinos for Education — have a model for this and believe it could be the beginning of a much-needed reimagining of education in Boston.

We actually came together before the pandemic, encouraged by local philanthropists to take a “moonshot” approach to more equitable education in the city by forging a collaboration between nonprofits and the school district. But when the pandemic struck, our Community Learning Collaborative had a chance for a test run.

Each collaborative partner is guided by a leader of color who has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to education, youth development and community engagement. We share our talents, expertise and resources to provide comprehensive and equitable learning opportunities for low-income students and families in Boston.

We are currently running 12 equity pods, organized by age and grade level, with 125 students spending the day with an educator in a community-based setting within walking distance of home. Each location is equipped with high-speed Internet, laptop computers for those who don’t have them and headsets so students can focus on their classwork with their Boston Public School teachers. We know from students, parents, teachers and even grandparents that young people are excelling and thriving. Now, we want to keep going and take the lessons we are learning into summer with fun, academically enriching programs at facilities run by the YMCA, The Base and IBA.

We are seeing the impact of high-quality academic support, social-emotional development, health and wellness, recreation, arts, movement and food in a fun and engaging environment. Students, parents and teachers report that they like the pods and students are excelling, keeping up with their schoolwork and enjoying learning. Smaller settings with individualized attention are working to meet students’ needs. Our whole-child approach includes culturally appropriate curricula, taught and supported by leaders and teachers of color, which contributes to positive self-identities for children of color. Students see themselves and their experiences reflected by the caring adults around them. We are also combating food insecurity and hunger by providing healthy and nutritious meals and snacks.

To gather data, we have brought in Bellwether Education Partners survey students, parents and teachers, so we have a complete analysis of how our pods are working and what we can learn from them.

The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated disparities experienced by low-income Black and Latino children. These inequities often result from limited access to academic, enrichment and out-of-school opportunities available to children of wealthier households. As a result, Black and Latino children are less likely to graduate from high school, attend college, secure gainful employment and accumulate wealth — all outcomes that can be mitigated with equitable access to educational opportunities. Children’s potential is equally distributed, but opportunity is not.

We are reimagining public education in Boston. Our resolve is fueled by the fierce urgency of now and knowing that if society fails to educate all of its children, then it has failed all of its children.

James Morton is president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Boston. Community Learning Collaborative leaders Amanda Fernandez, CEO and co-founder of Latinos for Education; Robert Lewis, president and founder of The BASE; and Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, executive director of Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, also contributed to this essay.

Last April, school districts were one month into unanticipated, universal closures and still of their spring remote learning plans. Many school districts were overwhelmed by shifting basic operations like access to critical services and laptop distribution. It is not surprising that summer planning in 2020 felt a bit like putting together a puzzle with pieces from different boxes.

This year, however, we are in a vastly different situation. Districts have a year of experience with remote and hybrid learning. Vaccination efforts are well underway. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona has set in motion a for state and local leaders, and Congress has passed a tremendous stimulus bill that provides districts with nearly $122 billion for addressing pandemic impacts.

Given all of these unmatched supports and only months until summer arrives, it is noteworthy that school districts have put out so little information about 2021 summer learning and enrichment plans. Moreover, many of the plans released are missing high-leverage strategies being discussed by experts across the country, like tutoring, assessment data, and clear communication plans.

Districts release limited summer programing plans this spring

CRPE’s review of 100 urban and large school districts for summer plans finds that, , most summer school plans are vague. A significant majority lack explicit learning supports and feature incomplete or confusing messaging.

A little more than half of the districts—53 of the 100—do not share information on summer plans at all.

The others report a variety of summer learning and enrichment options. About a third—35 of the 100—have released detailed plans, including offerings broken down by grade band, learning mode options, program dates, and availability of programs targeting specific groups such as multilingual students. Some have already opened registration or presented their plans to their school boards.

The final 12 districts commit to a broad vision of summer school but lack specificity and transparency in what summer learning and enrichment options will look like.

For districts with detailed plans, specifics vary

In early March, presented a summer learning plan that incorporated information about their planning committee and a tiered approach to address learning recovery, as well as postsecondary support and project-based learning options. Most importantly, their communication plan, their outline for proposed timing, and progress to date are explicit and accessible. has released a detailed plan for projected number of seats and costs by program focus, like credit recovery or summer enrichment. is hosting information sessions for families to learn about summer program options and is clear with parents about the risk of summer slide and the value of academic programming during those months. A Philadelphia parent would easily be able to find information about summer learning opportunities that are most appropriate for their children.

Thirty-three districts say how long their summer program will be, with a range from two to eight weeks. Twelve districts are offering a month or less of summer learning and enrichment, while 21 districts are offering five or more weeks. is offering free two-week summer camps for students in grades 1 through 12 who need extra instruction. is offering a longer, eight-week summer program for students in elementary to high school.

Summer learning plans may not meet students’ personalized learning needs

Of the 100 districts we reviewed, 47 released information on their summer learning plans—and nearly half of those (22) provided no information about learning mode. Among the others, a majority (13) will offer the choice of in person or virtual; eight will offer only in-person learning, and four will offer only virtual learning.

Some of the virtual summer programs will include both synchronous and asynchronous instruction. , for instance, will offer the Digital Learning Playground for PK-8 students, which blends the two. Such an approach accommodates the significant who prefer a remote learning environment, but it is unclear whether such virtual-only approaches will provide enough individualized learning or opportunities to rebuild relationships.

While many districts describe how students can enroll in summer learning, only one of the 100 districts said diagnostic assessments will be used to determine which students need summer learning.

That district, , in Tennessee, plans to prioritize students using two assessments, but will not mandate anyone’s participation. In addition, Shelby County Schools will increase the amount of learning time over typical summer weeks by decreasing summer school weeks and moving up the start of the 2021–22 school year.

After a year of unprecedented disruption, it’s discouraging that more districts are not, like Shelby, using assessment and academic data to determine which students are most in need of summer learning support.

Districts focus heavily on summer enrichment programming, for better or for worse

This year’s summer programming has the potential to individual student instruction while helping schools prepare for good assessment, tutoring, and personalized support in the fall.

School districts are most frequently offering opportunities for enrichment, academic content, credit recovery, and learning acceleration for summer 2021:

• Twenty-three districts will offer enrichment programs. For example, plans summer enrichment and acceleration for students in grades K-8.
• Twenty-one districts will offer reading/math programs. For example, is a full-day summer program for all grade levels that combines literacy and math learning.
• Eighteen districts will offer credit recovery programs, like . Nine districts will offer learning programs. For example, plans summer accelerated learning in preparation for the 2021–22 school year.

Among the significant number (23) of school districts who identified enrichment as a top priority, community partners were often incorporated into plans for additional services and support. Leveraging community partners in this way builds on communities’ strengths and allows districts to prioritize the delivery of other—likely academic—services. outlined multiple partnerships with local organizations, such as the historical society and conservatory. In March, San Francisco Unified School District established a coalition of community organizations, nonprofits, and business leaders for , a free program for students and families.

What is most worrisome is what’s missing in 2021 summer school planning

So far we’ve reported on what we noticed, but what is most troubling are the things we didn’t see in the 47 plans reviewed:

1. High dosage tutoring. Despite the growing evidence base and broad support for , this strategy was almost completely absent in the summer programs we reviewed. Only one district outlined a detailed plan for tutoring: in Idaho’s , the tutoring will be available by appointment only.

2. Standardized assessment data. With many districts forgoing their typical testing schedules this year, either interim or summative, it is not surprising that prioritizing students using assessment data are not included in more of the summer learning plans. That said, without end-of-year data, it will be difficult for school districts to identify priority students for inclusion in summer programs or determine the extent to which students receiving special education services are in need of compensatory education. Lack of student academic data will as they prepare for summer and fall and leaves the door open for to address unfinished learning (e.g., interventions targeting content from earlier grades).

3. Public transparency about funding. Twenty percent of the American Rescue Plan funding for education agencies must be used to address learning loss. This category is very expansive and includes as options for expenditures. Because districts have not yet shared details on how they will spend the first tranche of these funds, it’s unclear how much districts will rely on these funds for 2021 summer school and the extent to which they will be transparent about their funding strategies.

This is an initial analysis describing the landscape of what summer learning and enrichment opportunities we may see this year. As district plans develop and evolve we are hopeful that the puzzle pieces will come together with more clarity and grounding in the things we know will help students prepare for another unprecedented fall.

Dr. Christine M. T. Pitts is Research and Evaluation Manager at Portland Public Schools. As a facilitative leader, she also collaborates and coordinates across policymakers and state leaders to investigate and advocate for policies that prioritize equity in education.