Over the summer, many students forget some of what they have learned during the school year, but “summer learning loss” is particularly severe among low-income youth and a leading cause of the achievement gap between them and more affluent students. Recently, The Wallace Foundation asked leading experts in the field of summer learning to explore how summer programs could be a solution to this problem and how they could be better supported, improved and made more available to the children who need them.
Effective and Promising Summer Learning Programs and Approaches for Economically-Disadvantaged Children and Youth (revised in January 2010) examines available research on program outcomes for children, and identifies the characteristics of effective summer learning programs. It finds that reading and math achievement gains are possible. It concludes that good programs tend to include experienced teachers on staff, small group sizes and activities that make learning fun. Authors Mary Terzian, Kristin Anderson Moore and Kathleen Hamilton are researchers from the Child Trends research center. The paper is also available as a shorter Click here to download Fact Sheet. Click here to download White Paper.
It’s Time for Summer: An Analysis of Recent Policy and Funding Opportunities suggests that summer learning programs could be improved and expanded if disparate federal, state and local programs were better coordinated. The paper recommends a number of steps to policymakers and funders, including ensuring that regulations for various federal education programs explicitly allow spending for summer programs, and creating summer funding collaboratives of local foundations and corporations. Authors Ron Fairchild, Jeff Smink and Ashley B. Stewart are, respectively, chief executive officer, vice president-policy, and director-community initiatives at the National Summer Learning Association. Click here to download.
Building Quality in Summer Learning Programs: Approaches and Recommendations identifies the different settings in which summer programs for disadvantaged youth most commonly take place – schools, parks and recreation departments, community- and faith-based organizations, and child-care programs – and examines the limitations and opportunities presented by each in building better programming. Authors Brenda McLaughlin and Sarah Pitcock are vice president-initiatives and director-program quality at the National Summer Learning Association. Click here to download.