​A global pandemic. Widespread student instructional loss. And, then, a call to action.

This was the lead-up to summer 2021, when school districts across the United States—supported by an unprecedented amount of federal funding and urged on by the U.S. secretary of education—mobilized to deliver summer learning programming for K-12 students. A full 94 percent of districts responded, reaching nearly one-fifth (18 percent) of their student populations, on average.

Those are just a few of the takeaways from this report, a slide presentation that details early findings from an ongoing multi-method study of how educators turned to summer learning programs to address the instructional losses brought on by school closings and other upheavals during the COVID-19 crisis.

This report draws on a survey of districts that yielded nationally representative results and revealed patterns and common characteristics of summer 2021 programming efforts. Among the findings about districts that offered summer 2021 learning opportunities:

• School districts in cities and rural areas served the greatest proportion of their students (22 percent and 18 percent, respectively) with school districts in suburbs serving the smallest proportion (13 percent). 
• “Learning recovery”—supporting students in pursuing learning disrupted by the pandemic—was the most common summer programming approach, used by 75 percent of the districts. 
• Some 67 percent of the districts prioritized serving students with special needs. 
• More than half of the districts (57 percent) supplemented academic programming with social-emotional learning. 
• Some 41 percent of districts engaged partners to plan for and/or deliver programming.