Best Practices for Expanding Summer Learning Opportunities for All Students

As we move forward through the pandemic and its impact on learning during the 2020-2021 school year, districts are reimagining their summer programs.

We are all walking a new path forward, and there are no right answers. There are, however, lessons to be learned from years past. Combine them with all that we’ve learned since March 2020, and some creative ideas for summer programs in 2021 emerge.

These are four best practices that are dominating conversations about summer programs this year:

1. Meet the social and emotional learning needs of students so that they are receptive to learning
   
2. Provide flexible opportunities to earn initial course credit
   
3. Remediate gaps in prerequisite knowledge prior to advancing grade levels
   
4. Increase college and career readiness