How States Are Supporting Summer Learning
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many states have invested in summer learning at unprecedented levels, creating opportunities for academic acceleration, enrichment, and career exploration that have benefited hundreds of thousands of students and working families across the country.
The federal recovery funds that enabled many of these investments expire in September 2024, and, as states look to the future, there are opportunities to learn from the summer learning initiatives developed during this funding window of the past few years. As one way to lift up insights and learning around state efforts, forthcoming research from the Learning Policy Institute, funded by the Wallace Foundation, draws on case studies of nine states that were selected to represent different geographic regions and political contexts, with a preference for states that were already investing state funds in summer or had plans to do so. From these states—Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Vermont—we harness learnings that can inform future state-level efforts to promote robust access to high-quality summer learning opportunities.
Among these nine states, summer learning initiatives were designed around three distinct priorities: academic acceleration, enrichment opportunities, and career exploration. In this blog post, we share examples from three states that are emblematic of these different approaches.
Academic Acceleration
In several states, investments in summer learning were motivated by the goal of extending academic learning time to prevent summer learning loss and accelerate student learning.
Tennessee provides an example of how summer learning can be designed to extend academic learning time. In Tennessee, the governor and state legislature worked together to proactively address students’ academic needs by passing the Tennessee Learning Loss Remediation and Student Acceleration Act in January 2021, which directed state funding and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds toward summer programming. The act requires all local education agencies (LEAs) to offer voluntary summer learning camps for students in grades 1–8 (expanded in 2023 to grades K–9). The enrollment of students in priority groups—those who are from low-income families, are low-performing, or attend schools where most students are low-performing—is funded by the state, although LEAs can open participation to non-priority students if there is capacity.
Tennessee’s summer learning camps have a strong academic focus. They operate for a minimum of 4 weeks and provide 4 hours of English language arts and mathematics instruction every day, plus an hour each of intervention (i.e., high-dosage tutoring or small-group instruction targeted to foundational skills gaps) and an hour of physical activity or play. To support rigorous instruction, the state requires LEAs to prioritize hiring licensed staff and use either a state-created summer learning curriculum or the LEA’s state-approved academic year curriculum. Full-day programming and the availability of no-cost transportation and meals—each of which are best practices for promoting attendance—enable and encourage students’ engagement over the duration of the program.
To assess the impact of summer instruction, all camps give participating students a pre- and post-test on the standards from their previous grade level. These data, coupled with observations from site visits by state education agency (SEA) staff, inform the design of professional development and technical assistance materials for LEAs to support the continuous improvement of their summer programming.
Through this investment, estimated at $130 million yearly by an SEA representative, LEAs served more than 102,000 students in 2023, representing approximately 13% of Tennessee’s K–9 students. Initial outcomes are promising: The program’s 2023 annual report notes that participating students experienced meaningful growth in math and English language arts at many grade levels, with larger gains for those with stronger attendance records.
Enrichment Opportunities
Other states focused on creating enrichment opportunities. Vermont provides an instructive example of how state investments can help improve students’ and families’ access to enriching summer experiences. In his 2020 State of the State speech, Vermont Governor Phil Scott established the goal that, by 2025, Vermont would achieve universal access to afterschool and summer learning for every student who wants to attend. The ultimate vision is that, as the state afterschool network writes, “Every young person will know they have a place to go after school and over summer, and every Vermont parent or caregiver will know their kids are safe and cared for when they can’t be at home.”
Spurred into action, Vermont invested Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds totaling over $8 million in a series of competitive grant programs designed to help community-based organizations and LEAs serve more students in grades K–12. These grants prioritized funding for providers located in areas of the state with few or no options available or who proposed plans to improve access for students from historically marginalized groups, including students with disabilities and those from low-income families. Funded providers implemented many different types of programming, including academic enrichment and support, youth-led learning and social activities, outdoor experiences and physical activity, college preparation, and more. In summer 2021 and 2022, the grant programs enabled funded providers to create close to 7,000 new summer learning slots and serve over 19,000 students. Given that Vermont’s public school system enrolled approximately 83,700 students in fall 2022, this represents a significant expansion in service capacity.
With the governor’s support, the state has secured an unexpected, yet sustainable, funding source for continued investment in summer programs: cannabis. In 2020, Governor Scott said he would only sign a bill to legalize recreational cannabis if the tax revenue from sales went toward expanding afterschool and summer learning opportunities. Although a bureaucratic barrier delayed access to these funds, in 2024 the SEA launched the first fully state-funded grant program—the Afterschool and Summer Learning Programs grant program—with $3.5 million in cannabis tax revenue. This program will be renewed annually, providing a stable source of funds for providers as they work to grow their capacity to serve students and provide high-quality programming across all areas of the state.
Career Exploration
In its focus on career exploration and development, New Mexico’s program is noteworthy as an example of a large-scale and state-supported internship program. In New Mexico, investments in summer programming provide high school students with opportunities for employment and career exploration. The Summer Enrichment Internship Program, launched in 2021 with $9.8 million in ESSER dollars, funds high school students’ participation in paid 6- to 10-week summer internships hosted by county, tribal, and municipal government agencies and community-based nonprofits. By funding opportunities for paid summer employment (with hourly wages varying by employer), the program aims to provide direct financial support to students who might otherwise be at risk of dropping out of high school in pursuit of financial stability. The internship format allows students to explore potential career pathways and develop a better understanding of the value of their education in the workplace and for future career opportunities—while being compensated.
To administer the program, the SEA allocates funding to counties and tribes, and to a nonprofit partner (HELP New Mexico) that supports smaller communities and tribes that would not be able to administer an internship program independently. These entities hire an intern coordinator, find intern placements at government agencies and nonprofits within their communities, issue intern pay, and provide liability insurance for the program. Each intern is paired with a mentor at their placement site who creates a plan for their experience, provides onboarding, tracks time and feedback, and reports back to the intern coordinator. To support quality, the SEA developed a series of training courses and other resource materials for program coordinators and adult mentors.
In the first two summers of operation, the program hosted more than 3,400 interns, who completed a variety of projects. For example, one intern filmed and edited a series of public service announcement videos for the Doña Ana County Government Center, and another helped develop a website for a nonprofit promoting community and economic development in Colfax County. “This program helped me to prepare for the real world,” shared one intern. “I have learned so much.”
The stories of the numerous ways participating students benefited from their experiences enabled program champions to successfully advocate for ongoing support. The program was initially reliant on ESSER funds, but the state legislature allocated $7.2 million in 2022 and $8 million in 2023 to maintain and grow the program.
Where do states go from here?
These three states provide examples of how investments in summer programming can support a variety of student development goals. They also suggest ways in which states can continue these investments post-ESSER.
Many states across the country used ESSER funds to develop comparable infrastructures for issuing grants to support summer providers but do not yet have plans to sustain investment beyond the ESSER funding cliff. If these investments are allowed to lapse, many students stand to lose access to the programs that have provided them with academic and experiential enrichment, social connection, regular meals, and a safe place to be during the summer months.
In this moment of transition, states have the opportunity to consider how to build on ESSER-era progress in summer learning spaces and continue to leverage summer as a time to support and engage students. Their decisions today have the potential to impact the opportunities available to students in summers to come.