Giving Compass' Take:
- Kelly Field discusses the rise of summer learning programs now as compared to pre-pandemic in an effort to remedy pandemic learning loss.
- How can donors help fill the gaps in funding to shore up pandemic learning loss?
- Learn more about key issues in education and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on education in your area.
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In a middle school classroom in this Colonial-era city north of Boston, four 13- and 14-year-old boys were creating a poster with icons of their favorite apps. Ruler in hand, Enthonny Silva carefully delineated a box with the Netflix logo, while Guarionex Sanchez sketched the WhatsApp logo freehand. None of the boys chose to be in a summer learning program in the middle of July — they said their moms made them go. “She didn’t want me at home, sleeping all the time,” Guarionex said.
Yet all four said the program, which pairs project-based learning with enrichment in the arts and sports, is more fun than they expected.
Summer learning programs like this one, which serves low-income students who are typically two to three years behind in reading, have proliferated since the pandemic, buoyed by billions in federal recovery dollars doled out by the states over the past three years. Nationwide, more than 8 in 10 districts offered summer programs in 2023, many free of charge.
Yet summer programs still aren’t operating at a large enough scale to make a significant dent in the country’s Covid-related learning loss, researchers say, and the federal money is running out. Some programs are preparing to cut staff and services and reduce the number of students they serve next summer, while others, like the Dream MORE program for middle schoolers, in Lynn, are working to replace the recovery money with grants and donations.
Patrick Stanton, executive director of the Massachusetts Afterschool Partnership, a nonprofit that supports after-school and summer learning providers, said he believes families are in for a nasty shock come next summer. Programs are going to close, he warned, and waitlists will grow even longer.
“We’re sleepwalking into a crisis,” Stanton said.
But it’s not too late for schools to double down on summer learning. Districts have until the end of September to allocate the remaining $34.1 billion of the money Congress provided in pandemic recovery funds. At least some of that money could go to summer programs.
Read the full article about summer learning programs by Kelly Field at The Hechinger Report.