Getting to Work on Summer Learning: Recommended Practices for Success, 1st Ed. Summary. RAND Summer Learning Series

Research shows low-income students suffer disproportionate learning loss over the summer and because those losses accumulate over time, they contribute substantially to the achievement gap between low- and higher-income children. The Wallace Foundation is funding a five-year demonstration project to examine whether summer learning programs can reduce summer learning loss and promote achievement gains. The full report, the first in a series, draws on emerging lessons from six school districts in the study -- Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Duval County (Florida), Pittsburgh, and Rochester (New York) -- that offer full-day programs for five to six weeks free of charge to large numbers of elementary students. The report synthesizes the key lessons learned about how to establish and sustain effective programs. The recommendations from the full report are presented in this summary. [For the full report "Getting to Work on Summer Learning: Recommended Practices for Success, 1st. Ed. RAND Summer Learning Series," see ED594503. For the appendix materials "Getting to Work on Summer Learning: Recommended Practices for Success, 1st Ed. Appendix Materials. RAND Summer Learning Series," see ED594506.]