Another school year has ended and many students across the country are enrolled in summer programs. At NWEA, we have long been champions for using the summer months effectively. Regardless of the tests used to measure it, student learning tends to slow down, or even backslide, during the summer. Some student groups—especially rural students, English learners, and students with disabilities—lose even more ground.

But implementing effective summer programs is hard. Staffing challenges, burnout (for both students and staff), and the stigma of summer school can all affect how many students have access to summer programs and the quality of their experience. Fortunately, the research team at NWEA recently dug into studies on effective summer programs and found important takeaways for school and district leaders.

Here are five keys to effective summer programs.

1. Focus: Decide what your summer program is meant to accomplish

Unlike other academic recovery strategies like high-dosage tutoring, summer school programs often have a wide range of goals. Some focus solely on academics, like reading and math, while others promote positive behavioral outcomes, like student engagement and social-emotional skills. These are all laudable goals, but district leaders may have more success if they narrow their objectives.

For example, summer literacy programs have been found to increase reading achievement by a meaningful amount, especially for younger students in earlier grades. Similarly, summer math programs increase math achievement. However, the gains in these subjects tend to be concentrated in the program’s focus area. This may sound obvious, but policymakers should use summertime to target specific instructional gaps for particular students. If requiring summer program participation for students in need of additional instructional time, policymakers should ensure students are receiving additional support in the area or areas most important for their success.

2. Time and dosage: Prioritize more learning time to see bigger gains

Last year, NWEA researchers were part of the Road to Recovery evaluation study that found that summer learning programs boosted student learning in math, but those gains were proportional to the amount of instructional time students actually received.

In other words, if district leaders want to see consistently positive outcomes, they need to offer summer programs with sufficient instructional time. Research suggests those programs should be greater than three weeks, with at least three hours of instruction per day.

3. Targeting: Identify the students who need the most support

Districts with limited resources might be tempted to target summer programs to low-income students. But the research is not a slam dunk on this point. Summer programs are particularly beneficial to low-income students in reading, but they offer similar benefits in math to students across the income spectrum. Moreover, it’s not necessarily the case that low-income students suffer larger declines than their higher-income peers in the summer months.

Another line of research, however, suggests that students who gain the most during the school year tend to lose the most during the summer months. This may be a counterintuitive finding at first, but NWEA research has found that English learners and students with disabilities fit this pattern. These students benefit the most during the regular school year and tend to suffer the largest declines in the summer months. The lesson for district leaders, then, is to target summer programs based on academic disadvantage rather than income.

4. Curriculum: Use high-quality instructional materials

Given the short duration of summer programs, school staff will have only a limited time to prepare. As such, they need to be equipped with high-quality curricular tools and lesson plans.

The research base confirms, unsurprisingly, that summer programs are more effective when they use an evidence-based curriculum. And, ideally, the curriculum that educators use during summer should be the same one they use during the regular school year. School and district leaders can leverage the tools available to evaluate quality, such as approved state lists, to provide districts with access to high-quality instructional materials in the summer in addition to the school year.

5. Family engagement: Make parents and guardians allies

Parents and guardians are not always fully aware of how their child is performing, and they don’t always know about additional learning opportunities, such as free summer programs.

District leaders worried about low participation or engagement rates should take a closer look at their family engagement efforts, including hosting information sessions and conferences, sending daily text messages, or calling home to discuss absences. Messages emphasizing the importance of attendance can be particularly effective. Daily communication between teachers and families has been shown to increase on-time homework completion and reduce classroom behavioral issues. State leaders can help here, too, by revisiting parental engagement policies, guidance, and funding levers to better support districts in their efforts to support family.

In closing

When done well, summer programs can make a significant impact on academic and non-academic outcomes for students. The five steps outlined here are important places to start.

Read our full research brief for more practical guidance on designing high-quality summer programs.