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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
How to Make Sure Your Summer Learning Program Is Effective
In the best of times, it is no small feat to put together a quality summer learning program. Given that districts are focusing not only on academic recovery from COVID learning loss, but on retaining teachers, supporting students' and teachers' mental health, and addressing increases in misbehavior, they need immediate, digestible guidance for summer programming.
Mar 30, 2022
Commentary
Teachers Have Lost Out on Professional Development. Summer Programs Could Help
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.
Mar 5, 2021

Explore Summer Learning

Dissertation
The Impact of a Summer Program on the Development of Historically Underrepresented Minorities in STEM
Studies ways post-secondary institutions can better the diversity in their STEM disciplines by focusing on pre-college preparation and retention of historically underrepresented high school students by considering the case of a summer bridge program.
Jan 12, 2023
Blog
Russian Mercenaries, Online Extremism, the Commercial Space Market: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on Russia's use of mercenaries, understanding how extremist movements operate online, trends in the commercial space market, and more.
Apr 15, 2022
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
Commentary
Commit Now to Get Summer Programming Right
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.
Apr 15, 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

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Research conducted by

RAND Education and Labor

Researcher Spotlight

Jennifer Sloan McCombs

Adjunct Policy Researcher

Jennifer McCombs is an adjunct policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Her research focuses on evaluating the extent to which public policies and programs improve outcomes for children and youth facing disadvantage. Her studies combine implementation and outcome data to provide practitioners…
Susannah Faxon-Mills

Senior Policy Analyst

Susannah Faxon-Mills (she/her) is a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. She has expertise in education policy, implementation and developmental evaluation, and qualitative methods and analysis. Her work explores how local educational systems, communities, and intermediary…

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