WHAT WORKS FOR SUMMER LEARNING PROGRAMS FOR LOW-INCOME CHILDREN AND YOUTH: Preliminary Lessons from Experimental Evaluations of Social Interventions 1

Children and youth who reside in economically disadvantaged households and in low-resource, urban neighborhoods are more likely to lose ground in math and reading over the summer than their higherincome peers. 1 Although summer learning programs are a promising strategy for narrowing this achievement gap, surveys indicate that only 25 to 36 percent of U.S. children between 6 and 11 years of age attend summer programs (excluding summer school). 2,3 This Fact Sheet presents some emerging lessons from 11 summer learning programs that were evaluated using experimental research designs. These programs are included in the Child Trends ’ online database of experimentally-evaluated, out-ofschool time interventions – LINKS (Lifecourse Interventions to Nurture Kids Successfully); available online at www.childtrends.org/LINKS). All of the programs were implemented with economically disadvantaged children and youth. The findings of this synthesis suggest that summer learning programs can be effective and are likely to have positive impacts when they engage students in learning activities that are hands-on, enjoyable, and have real-world applications. This review also suggests some insights into promising practices. Programs that are guided by grade-level curricular standards, are led by experienced teachers, conduct classes with 15 or fewer students and at least two adults, and complement group learning with individual support were