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Summer Learning

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Research shows that summertime can widen the achievement gap between students from low-income families and their more-affluent peers. Summer learning programs are a promising way to narrow the gap. RAND researchers examine approaches and strategies for summer learning initiatives and their effects on student outcomes.

Commentary

Commit Now to Get Summer Programming Right

Apr 15, 2021

When summer programs are targeted to needs, intentionally designed, and well attended, they produce positive outcomes in math and reading. But these programs need federal support, and they require early planning.
Commentary

Teachers Have Lost Out on Professional Development. Summer Programs Could Help

Mar 5, 2021

For thousands of teachers across the United States, 2020 was a year of uncertainty. Many lacked access to their usual professional learning activities. Summer programs for students that also offer learning opportunities for teachers might help make up for lost time.

Explore Summer Learning

Report

Summer for All: Building Coordinated Networks to Promote Access to Quality Summer Learning and Enrichment Opportunities Across a Community

In this eighth report in RAND's Summer Learning Series, the authors chronicle early efforts in four communities to create coordinated approaches to summer programming, noting their challenges, enablers, and early outcomes.

Nov 10, 2021
Report

The Big Lift Evaluation: Research Findings Five Years In

The authors examine participation rates, kindergarten readiness, and third-grade outcomes of children eligible to participate in The Big Lift™, a preschool–third-grade initiative to designed to boost reading proficiency.

Nov 9, 2021
Blog

Summer Learning, America's Middle Class, Waking Up After the Pandemic: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on how to make summer learning count, U.S. deterrence in the ‘gray zone,’ why so many Americans are stuck outside the middle class, and more.

Apr 23, 2021
Report

Getting to Work on Summer Learning: Recommended Practices for Success, 2nd Ed. — Executive Summary

The authors distill lessons about implementing and improving summer learning programs gleaned from a six-year study in the five urban districts participating in the National Summer Learning Project.

Mar 25, 2021
Research Brief

How Can Teachers Make the Most of Professional Learning in the Summer?

This brief summarizes an examination of the potential value of academic summer programs for students that also offer professional learning opportunities for teachers.

Jan 12, 2021
Report

The Promise of Summer as a Time for Teacher Professional Learning: Findings from a National Survey and Implications from the BellXcel Program

This report presents data from the first nationally representative survey of teachers about their summer professional learning opportunities and data from a descriptive study of BellXcel Summer, an academic summer program model for students.

Jan 12, 2021
Report

Every Summer Counts: A Longitudinal Analysis of Outcomes from the National Summer Learning Project

This seventh report in a series presents longitudinal findings on the effectiveness of voluntary summer learning programs in five school districts. The authors also offer implications for policy on narrowing the achievement gap between students.

Dec 17, 2020
Journal Article

School's Out: The Role of Summers in Understanding Achievement Disparities

We use a novel data set with more than 200 million test scores for students across the United States to explore whether the "fanning out" of achievement from Grades 1 to 8 occurs while students are in school or during the intervening summers.

Jul 28, 2020
Blog

COVID Learning Loss, Russian Trolls, Artificial Intelligence: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on helping students recover learning losses, fighting Russian trolls, racial disparity in unemployment benefits, the race for AI leadership, and more.

Jul 17, 2020
Periodical

RAND Review: July-August 2020

Feature stories explore what research says about learning loss after extended school breaks; how stress and trauma affect individual and community health; and how a critical care surge response tool is helping hospitals during the pandemic.

Jul 13, 2020
Essay

The COVID Slide: How to Help Students Recover Learning Losses

Research shows that summer breaks contribute to income-based achievement and opportunity gaps for youth. How can we use what we know about summer learning to help kids in the age of COVID-19?

Jul 9, 2020
Research Brief

Supporting Summer Programs: Navigating Federal, State, and Local Program Support Opportunities

This research brief summarizes how policy environment affects school districts' attempts to scale and sustain quality summer programs.

May 12, 2020
Report

Getting Support for Summer Learning: How Federal, State, City, and District Policies Affect Summer Learning Programs

The authors consider how policy environments affect school districts' attempts to scale and sustain quality summer programs. This report, the sixth in a series, is intended to help program leaders navigate local, state, and federal policy contexts.

Apr 13, 2020
Report

The Big Lift Descriptive Analyses: Progress Across Three Kindergarten Classes

In this report, the authors present results describing early learning outcomes of children from three kindergarten classes who were eligible to participate in The Big Lift, a preschool-third-grade initiative that aims to boost reading proficiency.

Jan 13, 2020
Tool

Putting Data to Work for Young People: A Ten-Step Guide for Expanded Learning Intermediaries

This ten-step plan should help expanded learning nonprofits address challenges related to data collection and management and therefore make after-school and summer programs better and more accessible for students.

Oct 15, 2019
Blog

Truth Decay, Principals, Augmented Reality: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on media literacy education as a way to fight "Truth Decay," turning screen time into outdoor time, the importance of school principals, and more.

Jul 12, 2019
Report

Investing in Successful Summer Programs: A Review of Evidence Under the Every Student Succeeds Act

This report, which provides a systematic review of the evidence supporting summer programs and descriptions of evidence-based programs, is intended to provide guidance regarding the effectiveness of summer interventions.

Jun 5, 2019
Research Brief

The Big Lift Preschool, Two Years In: What Have We Learned So Far?

The Big Lift preschool-third-grade initiative aims to boost children's reading proficiency. This second in a series of descriptive analyses shares follow-up data on 2016-2017 kindergarten class participants and initial data on 2017-2018 participants.

Dec 12, 2018

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RAND Education and Labor