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National Call to Action for Summer Learning
Table of Contents
Document
- Author(s)
- Allison Crean Davis, John Hitchcock, Beth-Ann Tek, Emily Diaz, and Molly Hershey-Arista
- Publisher(s)
- Westat
Page Count
127 pages
Research Approach
Phase I of the National Summer Learning and Enrichment Study sought to generate findings about 2021 summer learning that reflected the experience of the 13,000+ traditional and public charter schools (collectively known as local education agencies, or LEAs) in the United States. 550 LEAs were randomly sampled within subgroups based on LEA size and poverty.
The sample was drawn from the National Assessment of Educational Progress’ district list, managed by the U.S. Department of Education. LEA size and poverty subgroups were used to ensure representation along these characteristics.
Westat further sorted LEAs by Census region, locale, charter vs. traditional LEA, and by the racial and ethnic backgrounds of enrolled students. This sorting produced a “stratified random sample” of 550 LEAs.
Westat launched the initial survey in Fall 2021, a shorter survey in January 2022, and conducted web scraping in March 2022 to arrive at 309 LEAs represented in the study.
- Initial Survey: The 550 LEAs received the initial survey in Fall 2021. This survey included five sections and fifty-eight items.128 out of 550 LEAs responded.
- Second Survey: Westat sent a second, shorter survey of 11 items in January 2022. 86 additional LEAs responded.
- Web Scraping: Researchers then supplemented these responses with web scraping, which yielded information for another 95 districts, bringing the total number of districts for which Westat had data to 309.
This three-part process captured three types of results:
- Nationally Representative Results: Responses to the 11 “MUST KNOW” items included in the initial, comprehensive survey and then sent in the second, shorter survey, are nationally representative.
- Directional Patterns: Results from 128 LEAs to additional survey items signal patterns of LEA activities in Summer 2021.
- Common Characteristics: 108 LEAs responded to a subset of the additional survey items that captured specific details on the LEA’s program serving the most students in 2021. These results provide common characteristics across the 108 LEAs’ programming.
These results are shared in Phase I of the Westat Study.
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