Summer Community Partners Feedback Survey for OST Programs by Muscogee County School District

HelpKidsRecover.org by the Afterschool Alliance: A campaign of the Afterschool Alliance and youth development and out-of-school time experts to help connect education leaders with community partners around the shared goal of supporting students.

Planning for Impactful Summer Learning by Jennifer Peck, Chris Smith, Katie Landes (GSAN), and Terry K. Peterson: Program elements, focus areas, and engaging designs to consider while planning for impactful summer learning.

Summer Learning Recruitment Guide by The Wallace Foundation: This report reviews key lessons learned from recruitment and retention by summer programs included in the National Summer Learning Project. It proposes and reviews eight key strategies for successful summer program recruitment: engage directly with students, understand your audience, create engaging messaging, create a written plan, make your outreach consistent and assertive, use trusted messengers, build a relationship with parents and students, and make registration as easy as possible.

What Keeps Kids Engaged in Summer Learning by the National Summer Learning Association: This research brief highlights a study conducted by Neil Maftzger from the American Institutes of Research. Specifically, his research documented key program strategies that led to higher levels of youth engagement, including: relevance statements, opportunities for youth to experience a sense of agency, and quality programming.

Staff Recruitment Toolkit by the Afterschool Alliance: This toolkit includes a collection of materials to help summer program providers recruit and hire new staff. Includes ideas for securing funds to increase wages, outreach strategies, messages, and easy-to-tailor flyers and graphics.

Summer Learning Recruitment Guide by The Wallace Foundation: This report reviews key lessons learned from recruitment and retention by summer programs included in the National Summer Learning Project. It proposes and reviews eight key strategies for successful summer program recruitment: engage directly with students, understand your audience, create engaging messaging, create a written plan, make your outreach consistent and assertive, use trusted messengers, build a relationship with parents and students, and make registration as easy as possible.

What Keeps Kids Engaged in Summer Learning by the National Summer Learning Association: This research brief highlights a study conducted by Neil Maftzger from the American Institutes of Research. Specifically, his research documented key program strategies that led to higher levels of youth engagement, including: relevance statements, opportunities for youth to experience a sense of agency, and quality programming.

Summer Parent Feedback Survey for OST Programs by Muscogee County School District 

Summer Student Feedback Survey for OST Programs by Muscogee County School District 

Mizzen by Mott: An application that helps plan and deliver engaging courses, lessons, and activities. This includes hands-on activities that foster well-being and learning in arts, STEM, storytelling, music, yoga and youth voice. Download it here.

Summer Activity Guide by the Georgia Statewide Afterschool Network and the 50 State Afterschool Network: This is a suite of fun and engaging activities and challenges based in skill building & social emotional learning, organized by four different age groups, that can be used for in-person, virtual, or hybrid instruction.

Early Lessons from Schools and Out-of-School-Time Programs Implementing Social and Emotional Learning by The Wallace Foundation: This report provides highlights from a two-year study focused on teaching social and emotional skills to youth. Specifically, it shares key lessons learned from six communities that have worked to implement social-emotional learning for youth through partnerships between the school and out-of-school-time programs. This report is beneficial for those working to support SEL both inside and outside the school.

SEL Roadmap: Actions for a Successful Second Semester by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL): This resource was developed by CASEL and 40 other partners to help schools support the social-emotional needs of youth as they transition from virtual to in-person learning. Key strategies are identified, including focusing on adult connections and providing a safe, nurturing environment. Tools to support these strategies are discussed and linked to provide easy implementation by schools and programs.

Teaching Kids How to Be Successful Learners by the Summer Matters Campaign: This report describes some of the ways these programs are intentionally structured to support youngsters’ social and emotional development. It draws from program evaluations, survey data, and in-person observations that all provide evidence of the differences this experience can make for children and youth, including the likelihood that their beliefs and attitudes will carry over into the regular school year.

Georgia Afterschool & Youth Development Standards by the Georgia Statewide Afterschool Network and GUIDE, Inc.: This is a quality assessment tool with best practice guidelines informed by research in a variety of disciplines to support the development of the whole child. The standards provide a framework for OST providers, serving youth in grades K–12, to evaluate and continuously improve the quality of their programming.

Summer Learning Program Quality Intervention by the Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality: This assessment tool was developed by the National Summer Learning Association and the Weikart Center to support summer programs in assessing their program quality based on research of youth development standards. Tools are also available to help management and staff have critical conversations about improving overall program quality.

Summer Learning Toolkit by The Wallace Foundation: This web-based resource provides summer program leaders with over 50 evidence-based tools and resources, including customizable tools, sample documents from actual summer programs, and tip sheets, as well as guidance documents that provide the connection to research.

Getting to Work on Summer Learning by The Wallace Foundation: In this edition, researchers distill lessons about implementation that they have gleaned from a six-year study of voluntary summer programs in the five urban districts participating in the National Summer Learning Project. Topics include: planning, teacher selection and professional development, sufficient time on task, student recruitment and attendance, academic curriculum and instruction, enrichment activities, positive summer climate, summer cost and funding.

Evidence-Based Interventions: Summer Learning or Enrichment and Comprehensive Afterschool Programs by Terry K. Peterson and Deborah Lowe Vandell: This document highlights some of the evidence base that shows well-designed and well-delivered summer enrichment and comprehensive afterschool can address “learning loss,” accelerate learning, and expand opportunities for student success.