Countering Summer Setback: Exploring the Strengths and Challenges of Summer Programs in Nonurban Settings

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-25 - Filling the Program Toolbox: A Deeper Understanding of Program Quality in Out-of-School Time Settings

Abstract

Over the last three decades, a number of studies demonstrated how students’ academic progress may be curtailed by limited access to engaging, enriching activities during the summer. A parallel set of research highlights how students’ participation in structured summer programs may curb and, in some cases, counter summer learning loss. To date, the majority of studies examining the impacts of summer setback on academic trajectories and the potentially mitigating effect of summer programs have taken place in urban settings. In the present study, we seek to expand the literature by conducting case studies of non-urban school districts to examine the question: What are the particular strengths of and challenges to developing and sustaining quality summer programs in non-urban school districts?

Authors

• Bernadette Doykos, Vanderbilt University - Peabody College

• Erika K Stump, University of Southern Maine