Summer Programs

August 14, 2019

High school starts early for California freshmen in ‘summer bridge’

Studies show that freshman year can be one of the most critical years in a student's academic journey.

July 31, 2019

At a summer program where community comes first, STEM education thrives

From residential life to calculus, relationship-building comes first in this STEM summer program.

July 26, 2019

Science gets hands on in summer STEM programs, but funding challenges remain

Many programs struggle to keep up with operational costs, potentially limiting access to STEM offered outside of school hours.

March 29, 2018

Federal funding for after-school programs intact, despite threatened budget cuts

The federal budget includes $1.21 billion for programs to help children in high-poverty areas with reading, math and science homework after school.

December 19, 2017

Early intervention helps boost reading skills for California children most at risk of falling behind

A program designed to improve young children’s reading skills is showing results in San Mateo County through a focus on preschools and summer learning.

August 8, 2017

Circle up: Teaching social-emotional skills year round

All social-emotional learning, all the time as California moves to start a conversation between after-school and summer programs and their school-day counterparts.

June 12, 2017

Ensuring access to summer learning for all students

Failing to invest in after-school and summer programs would undermine two decades of work to help communities close the learning gap for children of color, low-income children and working class families.

Jennifer Peck

June 11, 2017

Middle-school students embrace endless summer ... of linear equations

Free summer programs help kids struggling in math get a head start on algebra and geometry.

Carolyn Jones

May 22, 2017

California colleges welcome revived federal Pell grants for summer school

To the happy surprise of some officials, thousands of California students may benefit from the expansion of federal Pell grants into summer sessions. The extra funding is expected to help speed up the time to graduation for low-income students.

Larry Gordon

July 22, 2015

Congress sends mixed messages regarding after-school program funding

Advocates are encouraged that the program is receiving bipartisan support.

Susan Frey

November 19, 2014

Review focuses on expanded learning programs

A review of 30 well-designed studies on after-school and summer programs across the country found mixed results regarding their benefits on student academic performance. Students who were below grade level in English gained the most from these programs, according to some of the studies.

Susan Frey

July 17, 2014

Poll shows more students in summer programs

Data released today from a national poll shows that a third of families with school-age children had enrolled at least one child in a summer program in 2013. That is an increase from five years earlier when only a quarter of families had enrolled their children in summer programs.