Summer School Can Remedy Pandemic Learning Loss A philanthropist-funded program in New York showed that students got back on track quickly. By Michael R. Bloomberg
The crisis in American public education caused by the pandemic has settled into a dangerous new phase: resignation. The disastrous effects of remote instruction are still with us. Students continue to lag behind where they should be—sometimes by multiple grade levels—and little is being done to help them. The good news is that we know how to overcome learning loss.
Last year, when it became clear that a nationwide expansion of summer school would not be happening, I led a group of philanthropists in creating Summer Boost in New York City. The program focused on math and English and was open to struggling K-8 students in the city’s public charter schools, most of which did not have the resources to run robust summer school programs.
We didn’t know if the program would succeed. But letting struggling students languish was out of the question. The U.S. can’t move on from the pandemic until we address student learning loss.
The response from students and schools was resoundingly positive. More than 16,000 students from 224 schools participated. At the end of the summer, we tested students to assess their progress, and the results were encouraging.
The percentage of students who met grade-level standards in math nearly doubled—and in English, it more than doubled. The share of students scoring below the most basic levels of proficiency fell by nearly half. By the end of the summer session, many students had caught up and were back on track for success. But in much of the country, students didn’t spend any of their summer vacations in classrooms.
Fewer large school districts offered summer programs last year than in 2021, despite the obvious need and an influx of federal funding. And many of those that did focused on social and emotional support, not academic intervention. Learning social and emotional skills is important, but without a command of reading, writing and math, children will struggle to follow their dreams.
That so many families have abandoned traditional public schools shows that parents know these schools are failing and are looking for alternatives. Enrollment in U.S. public schools fell by nearly 1.5 million during the pandemic, and enrollment in New York City has fallen by 100,000 since 2020. Many parents have turned to charter and private schools, and the number of families home schooling their children has increased substantially.
There is a confidence crisis in our traditional public schools, and it isn’t going away unless we tackle it head-on. It’s imperative that school districts take a more robust approach to summer instruction by increasing the number of students participating and focusing on core academic skills. There’s no excuse not to, given the positive results we’ve seen.
Philanthropists can’t fund all the summer schools the nation needs, but they can fund more of them. Because of the strong results we saw in New York City, we have decided to run the program again this summer—and expand it to charter schools in seven other cities: Baltimore; Birmingham, Ala.; Indianapolis; Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.; San Antonio and Washington. By working with local leaders, we hope we will more than double the number of students we serve.
We are focusing on public charter schools because most charters receive less public funding than district schools and districts rarely open summer programming to charter students. Charter leaders also have been eager to get these programs off the ground. But to remedy the problem, we need education leaders across the country to support expanded summer instruction and demand that elected officials fund it, putting the needs of students—not the demands of teachers unions or other special interests—first.
Students who participate in summer learning can still enjoy a summer vacation. Most programs run only four to six weeks and offer activities outside the classroom such as classes on art and robotics. Another 10 weeks of vacation would put struggling students at greater risk of failing to graduate high school and ending up dependent on government assistance or in prison. Resigning ourselves to the current state of U.S. education would harm our efforts to reduce poverty and racial inequality and build an innovative economy to lead the world in the 21st century.
The summer months are fast approaching. Education leaders and elected officials should begin planning and organizing, and citizens should make their voices heard by local, state and federal elected officials. Let’s tell them: Support our kids this summer, or lose our support in November.
Mr. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, served as mayor of New York, 2002-13.
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