COVID-19 has prompted educators to think more about using the summer months as additional time for learning and enrichment. Little wonder, given the educational stagnation experienced during the school year by many children who had to adjust to virtual learning and other changes in the wake of the pandemic. This coming summer could prove pivotal in helping students make up for lost time. And it’s not too late to start planning for it.
Lessons from Wallace’s National Summer Learning Project could help. The initiative—begun in 2011 to assist in the development of effective, school-district-led summer learning programs in five communities—has yielded the largest and longest study of its kind, conducted by the RAND Corporation. The latest report from the research, Every Summer Counts: A Longitudinal Analysis of Outcomes from the National Summer Learning Project, finds that students who consistently attended high-quality, five-to-six week summer programs experienced meaningful benefits.
To help breakdown the key findings from the report, Catherine Augustine, a senior researcher at RAND and co-author of the report, has recorded a short video (less than three minutes).
