WHERE AND WHY KIDS MISS OUT DURING THE SUMMERAnalysis of the summer experiences, upcoming plans, and barriers facing the students at a Boston charter middle school (grades 6 – 8) and areas for action.

Prepared by Give a Summerramon@giveasummer.orgGiveaSummer.org

This is a condensed report. The full report is available here on Give a Summer’s website.

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Background on report

• This is the public version of a report prepared by Give a Summer for an urban Boston charter middle school analyzing the summer participation, future plans, and barriers facing their middle school students.

• The demographics of the school are broadly in line with Boston’s district population with 80% of kids low income, 35% English Language Learners, and 15% receiving special education (rounded numbers).

• With the school’s approval, Give a Summer is releasing a public version of the report as an example – of which Give a Summer has found no other – for how a community might ask and begin to answer these questions.

• Give a Summer believes that getting communities to collect data about where and why kids miss out on summer programs will:• improve the delivery of summer programs by identifying high-need areas and

barriers to summer program participation• As Give a Summer believes this report shows, figuring out which barriers matter and where

are the best opportunities to expand summer access is not obvious beforehand, and as Give a Summer believes future investigations will show, those answers may vary significantly across different communities.

• strengthen advocacy efforts by clarifying the need for opportunities• increase public accountability for improvement

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Executive summary: facts & takeaways

• Key facts: • Past attendance: 40% attended a summer program last year, with 55% of 6th

graders and only 30% of 7th and 8th graders doing so. • Future plans: 1/3 of kids want to attend a summer program this summer, with

1/3 not sure and 1/3 who don’t want to (with a similar breakdown across grades).• Barriers: The three biggest barriers to summer participation are i) conflicts with

family vacation, ii) not interested, iii) not excited by options. This is consistent across grades.

• Key takeaways:• Opportunity: 1/3 of kids are unsure if they want to go to a summer program, with

past experience suggesting that only 20% of those kids will make it to a summer program.

• Fight the 6th grade slump: Attendance falls from 55% to 30% between the summer before 6th and summer before 7th grade.

• Work around family plans: “Conflicts with family vacation” was the biggest barrier to summer participation, with 40% of kids rating it a “Big deal.”

• Focus on access barriers: “Conflicts with family vacation”, “I’m needed at home”, and “Lack of transportation” were bigger barriers for kids who did not attend than for kids who did, whereas other barriers were more similar for the two groups.

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Executive summary: remaining questions & tentative answers• When do students travel with their parents over the summer?

• How much does student interest (vs. parent interest or other factors) matter to eventual summer participation?• Not much: Both kids who did and did not attend summer programs rate the the

barriers of “not interested” and “not excited” about the same.• Unsure: do not know how student views on “Do you want to attend a summer

program” related to actual summer program attendance (requires follow up survey).

• How consistent is summer participation across years (are you trying to convince kids who consistently don’t attend or do you want to target every kid every year)?• Somewhat: Kids who attended a summer program last year are twice as likely (40%

vs. 20%) to want to attend a summer program this coming summer, though both groups of kids have 40% who are not sure if they want to attend a summer program.

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Areas for action (1)

• Help kids who are uncertain about their plans: 1/3 of kids are unsure if they want to go to a summer program, with past experience roughly suggesting that only 20% of those kids will make it to a summer program. • Idea: do targeted outreach (with teachers, tutors, and mailings) to kids

who are not sure about upcoming summer plans

• Fight the 6th grade slump: Attendance falls from 55% to 30% between the summer before 6th and summer before 7th grade.

• Work around family plans: “Conflicts with family vacation” was the biggest barrier to summer participation, with 40% of kids rating it “a big deal.” • Idea: look for and highlight summer programs with flexible schedules

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Areas for action (2)

• Focus on access barriers: “Conflict with family vacation”, “I’m needed at home”, and “lack of transportation” were bigger barriers for kids who did not attend than for kids who did, whereas other barriers were more similar for the two groups. • Idea: Focus local efforts and awareness towards solutions or work-

arounds of these problems.

• Try to eliminate large “outlier” barriers with kids: some kids only have one or two “bid deal” barriers. Focusing on those kids and those individual barriers may be an effective strategy to increase summer participation.• For example, 30% of kids have a barrier that is 1.25 points above their

average barrier score. • Attached Excel file provides additional analysis (not included in public

report).