Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

New State Education Standard Explores Ways to Expand Access to Summer Learning

  • 01/08/15

Alexandria, VA – The National Association of State Boards of Education today released the new issue of its journal, The State Education Standard, themed “Summer Learning: Engaging All Students.” The issue focuses on how and why state boards of education should increase the breadth and depth of students’ summer learning opportunities.

Children lose ground in learning if they have do not build skills over the summer months—teachers on average spend a month of the new school year re-teaching old material. Summer learning loss is most acute for low-income youth. For this reason, addressing summer learning policies offers a one-two punch: State policymakers who increase the quality of summer programs and the number of students they serve can make headway on narrowing the achievement gap in their states.

And the time to plan is now, argue Standard authors—well before the last bell of the school year rings.

In the cover story “Accelerating Student Success,” Sarah Pitcock and Bob Seidel of the National Summer Learning Association highlight the important role state policymakers play in developing a vision for summer learning, funding it, and making sure summer programs align with other education objectives.

Another article by RAND’s Catherine H. Augustine and Jennifer Sloan McCombs look at initiatives in six urban districts that yield lessons on how a state’s districts can get a handle on planning, curriculum, teacher selection and training, and funding. And Learning Forward’s Fred Brown offers a straightforward recounting of all the reasons a focus on summer learning is good for students and teachers.

“We have known for a long time that students’ lack of access to summer learning costs in terms of time spent relearning material taught in the previous school year,” says NASBE Executive Director Kristen Amundson. “Now more states are realizing they cannot make headway on bridging the achievement gap if they do not first focus on making engaging learning opportunities available to all students in the summer months.”

Featured

  • Doerr School of Sustainability Accelerator

    From Concrete Warehouse to Innovation Hub: Accelerating Sustainability at Stanford

    The transformation of a once windowless, concrete publishing warehouse into a sun-drenched center for global innovation began with a single, fundamental challenge: how to turn an industrial storage shell into a space built for human connection.

  • Houston-Area High School Breaks Ground on 117,000SF Multi-Use Facility

    North Shore Senior High School, part of Galena Park ISD in Houston, Texas, recently broke ground on a new multi-use facility for student extracurriculars, according to a news release. The North Shore Multi-Use Facility will include dedicated practice and training space for the school’s athletics and fine arts programs.

  • Surging Demand for Student Housing Fuels Major Campus Investment Opportunities

    University leaders throughout the U.S. are accelerating plans to modernize and expand student housing as enrollment stabilizes and demand for on-campus living rebounds. Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicates that total postsecondary enrollment is projected to grow through the end of the decade, with undergraduate enrollment alone expected to increase by more than 8 percent by 2030.

  • Can AI Help Build Stronger Communities in Student Housing?

    Student housing success is shifting from operational performance to student experience, with belonging now at the center. A recent 2025 report underscores a growing emphasis on student well-being, community, and engagement, signaling that expectations now extend beyond logistics to ensure students feel supported in their living environments. AI is enabling that shift by reducing administrative workload and giving teams more time to focus on meaningful student engagement.