The National Summer Learning Project, launched by the Wallace Foundation in 2011, includes an assessment of the effectiveness of voluntary, district-led summer learning programs offered at no cost to low-income, urban elementary students. In this third report in a series, RAND researchers examined student outcomes at four points during and after the years the programs were held.

Learning from Summer

Effects of Voluntary Summer Learning Programs on Low-Income Urban Youth

Catherine H. Augustine, Jennifer Sloan McCombs, John F. Pane, Heather L. Schwartz, Jonathan Schweig, Andrew McEachin, Kyle Siler-Evans

ResearchPublished Sep 7, 2016

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The National Summer Learning Project, launched by the Wallace Foundation in 2011, includes an assessment of the effectiveness of voluntary, district-led summer learning programs offered at no cost to low-income, urban elementary students. The study, conducted by RAND, uses a randomized controlled trial and other analytic methods to assess the effects of district-led programs on academic achievement, social-emotional competencies, and behavior over the near and long term. All students in the study were in the third grade as of spring 2013 and enrolled in a public school in one of five urban districts: Boston; Dallas; Duval County, Florida; Pittsburgh; or Rochester, New York. The study follows these students from third to seventh grade; this report describes outcomes through fifth grade. The primary focus is on academic outcomes but students' social-emotional outcomes are also examined, as well as behavior and attendance during the school year. Among the key findings are that students with high attendance in one summer benefited in mathematics and that these benefits persisted through the following spring; students with high attendance in the second summer benefited in mathematics and language arts and in terms of social-emotional outcomes; and that high levels of academic time on task led to benefits that persisted in both mathematics and language arts.

Key Findings

Implementation Findings

  • Programs implemented common features with fidelity but instructional quality varied within and across sites.

Attendance Findings

  • Participation was weaker in the second summer.
  • Students who participated attended an average of about 75 percent of the time.

Causal Findings on Program Effects

  • Summer programs produced a modest near-term benefit in mathematics that dissipated by the next fall.
  • There was no causal evidence that the programs produced benefits in language arts, social emotional outcomes, or student attendance or grades during the school year.
  • There was no causal evidence that offering two summers of programming provided benefits.

Correlational Findings on Program Effects

  • There is promising evidence that students with high attendance in one summer benefited in mathematics and that these benefits persisted through the following spring.
  • There is promising evidence that students with high attendance in the second summer benefited in mathematics and language arts and that these effects persisted.
  • There is promising evidence that students with high attendance in the second summer benefited in terms of social-emotional outcomes.
  • There is promising evidence that students with high levels of academic time on task benefited from the programs and that these benefits persisted in both mathematics and language arts.
  • There is promising evidence that students who received high-quality language arts instruction benefited from the programs.

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Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Available
  • Year: 2016
  • Print Format: Paperback
  • Paperback Pages: 110
  • Paperback Price: $15.00
  • Paperback ISBN/EAN: 978-0-8330-9660-9
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/RR1557
  • Document Number: RR-1557-WF

Citation

RAND Style Manual
Augustine, Catherine H., Jennifer Sloan McCombs, John F. Pane, Heather L. Schwartz, Jonathan Schweig, Andrew McEachin, and Kyle Siler-Evans, Learning from Summer: Effects of Voluntary Summer Learning Programs on Low-Income Urban Youth, RAND Corporation, RR-1557-WF, 2016. As of October 4, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1557.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Augustine, Catherine H., Jennifer Sloan McCombs, John F. Pane, Heather L. Schwartz, Jonathan Schweig, Andrew McEachin, and Kyle Siler-Evans, Learning from Summer: Effects of Voluntary Summer Learning Programs on Low-Income Urban Youth. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2016. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1557.html. Also available in print form.
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The research described in this report was conducted by RAND Education, a unit of the RAND Corporation.

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