On August 25, 2016, The Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Science hosted a panel on summertime opportunities in Washington DC. The workshop validated the value of a summer learning approach not only for student academic achievement, but also for students’ health outcomes. A report outlining the workshop was just published.
This timeline is a helpful resource for planning and keeping track of all the ways you can improve your summer program, developed by the National Summer Learning Association.
A quick reference guide for the CASP.
Once all stakeholder feedback, youth outcomes data, and quality assessment data is collected and analyzed, give key program stakeholders a chance to respond to it and use it to plan for next summer. In the spirit of a continuous quality improvement cycle, a program’s end-of-summer reflections should feed directly into the development of the Quality Improvement Plan for the next year.
Ideas for helping existing programs embed qualilty. Recommendations from TA providers.
Include discussions and demonstrations in your staff training on the following topics: Why are we offering this particular program? Who is an important part of our program, and what can we expect from them? How will we achieve our intended goals, and how will we know we were successful?
Educators often ask why we recommend that summer learning programs last at least one month. This suggestion is one of the six signs of a great summer learning program and is featured in our latest video, Summer Learning – An Inspiring Alternative to Summer School. Here are five reasons why duration matters:
This guide is intended to better acquaint school board members and superintendents with summer learning, and to help them establish or expand programs that result in greater learning and enrichment for the students they serve.
Summer Matters spoke with a representative from School on Wheels about their summer program. School on Wheels was founded in 1993 by a retired school teacher who saw first hand how homelessness affects children’s learning. The following is an excerpt from that interview.
The Urban Libraries Council (ULC) recently released a new report, Public Libraries and Effective Summer Learning: Opportunities for Assessment and executive summary. The new report documents ideas exchanged by leaders from both inside and outside the library field at the National Forum on Effective Summer Learning in Libraries.
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