Summer Learning Programs: Investigating Strengths and Challenges

Abstract

Given the substantial data that support trends in summer learning loss, researchers have concluded that summertime presents a particularly potent opportunity to help youth learn and develop in significant ways that have been vastly underestimated. Unfortunately, the socioeconomic divide keeps many children out of summer learning programs, meaning that those youth who may most benefit from opportunities to prevent summer learning loss may be least likely to participate in summer learning programs. This chapter examines the strengths and contributions of summer learning programs, along with identifying implementation challenges and gaps in our knowledge base. First, we provide an overview of the components of high quality summer learning programs. Then we address the connection between summer learning programs and youth outcomes and discuss several conceptual and methodological limitations in our understanding of associations between summer learning experiences and youth outcomes. Finally, we consider the role of summer learning in the larger picture of education reform and youth development priorities.