Steps to Redesign Your Summer Program

DSLN Hub DSLN Insights Guide Steps to Redesign Your Summer Program

Steps to redesign your summer program

The steps described below will help you imagine, plan for, and create more engaging, enriching summer programs for your students.

Five kids sit at a bench in a park filled with trees. Each reads a book in their lap. Stars pop up around the books as the gif plays.
A boy smiles at the camera while holding onto a monkey bar on a playground.
“Being in network with other districts across the country, but also in the same state has been crucial to helping us do better and serve scholars in a more robust way.”

–DSLN participant

Overview

Are you ready to rethink the way your district does summer?

Reimagining summer can feel daunting. But our districts start with a simple question: what change do you want to see? From there, they consider the opportunities for and barriers to achieving that change, and identify the people and groups who can help bring it about. From the outset, our districts also determine how they will measure progress to ensure they’re moving in the right direction.

Read more about each of these steps, including examples of how districts put them into practice, and how you can implement them in your district:

  1. Define a mission and vision.
  2. Design summer solutions that address root challenges.
  3. Engage key collaborators.
  4. Plan to measure success and act on your findings.

Step 1: Define a mission and vision.

Seventh grader Exiquiel Enamorado works on a math activity with a classmate during class on Sept. 21st, 2022. Photo credit Jessica Scranton for FHI 360.
Seventh grader Exiquiel Enamorado works on a math activity with a classmate during class on Sept. 21st, 2022. Photo credit Jessica Scranton for FHI 360.

Work with your team to craft a summer learning mission and vision statement that outlines your goals and clarifies how they advance overall district priorities. Start by reviewing summer learning research and considering your program’s strengths and the challenges you’d like to address. 

How DSLN puts this into practice

All DSLN districts complete a three-year DSLN Roadmap outlining their vision for summer. After analyzing their current state, they define what high-quality summer learning looks like, whom they will serve, and how they’ll measure success. To achieve their vision, districts work each year with their coaches to identify an “audacious goal” for their summer program. This ambitious, achievable goal prioritizes depth over breadth and represents a single change that can impact an entire system.

Step 1: Define a mission and vision.

Rochester, MN used participatory design to create, test, and refine its vision for summer learning.

Read how the district's vision shaped professional development, data collection, sustainability planning, and more.
Rochester, MN used participatory design to create, test, and refine its vision for summer learning

In 2021, Rochester Public Schools (MN) staff wanted to use Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to reimagine summer. Internal data showed that students thought the program was "boring, more school, punishment." So the district invited 50 staff, students, parents, and partner organizations to create a new vision for summer. 

The result was "Summer of Discovery," with a focus on the whole child and an emphasis on academics, experiences, interpersonal skills, and wellness.

Rochester partnered with its DSLN coach to bring its vision into every aspect of planning and design, including:

  • Planning for professional learning that centers the vision
  • Co-designing lesson planning tools for experiential learning
  • Quantitative and qualitative data collection to understand whether the district is achieving its vision.

Rochester's audacious new goal focused on sustaining the learning principles and practices the district has built since ESSER funding ended.

Using the same user-centered design process, Rochester's DSLN coach helped the district gather stories, lead reflections with summer learning teachers, and develop sustainability recommendations to help achieve its Summer of Discovery vision for years to come.

Photo credit: Jessica Scranton for FHI 360

TAKE ACTION

To set an audacious goal for your program

Imagine what you want your program to accomplish.

What do you want students, families, and staff to experience in summer? 

Have you checked your mission and vision with key audiences to make sure their perspectives are included?

Step 2: Design summer solutions that address root challenges.

To transform summer, consider the people who need to be engaged to do the work as well as the mindsets, practices, and structures that need to shift.

How DSLN puts this into practice

Action-oriented leaders are often tempted to problem-solve by tackling visible challenges first. But this can overlook hidden issues. 

Instead, DSLN helps districts unpack challenges using data to understand root causes and from there identify more effective solutions for transforming summer learning. This video shows how a district can dig deeper to think about the patterns, structures, and mental models beneath a visible problem.

Step 2: Design summer solutions that address root challenges.

Bloomington Public Schools, MN dug deeper to address barriers to summer learning to serve approximately 10,000 K–12 students.

Read how the district used its communications planning to uncover outreach issues resulting in more eligible students signing up for holistic summer programs.
Bloomington Public Schools, MN dug deeper to address barriers to summer learning to serve approximately 10,000 K–12 students

Bloomington Public Schools' Summer Quest program offers academic and enrichment supports in a camp-like setting. It is designed primarily for students whose test scores fall below designated cutoffs and/or who are recommended by teachers.

However, the program lacked a systemic referral process and was not well publicized, so it was not reaching the intended students. It was also small due to limited staffing and was not geared towards high-needs populations like multilingual learners and homeless and highly mobile students. 

After reviewing the data, Bloomington staff and their DSLN coach used the DSLN Communications Tool to improve outreach to summer learning audiences. Using prompts from the tool, the planning team reflected on:

  • Communications goals
  • Audiences to reach
  • Compelling messages
  • Opportunities to deliver messages to families.

The team recognized that in addition to communications to highlight the power of summer learning and to recruit teachers, they also needed specific messages and channels for the families of the children they wanted to reach and a process to ensure that all qualifying students were referred. 

At one planning meeting led by their DSLN coach, the team explored issues that limit students' participation in summer programming, including transportation needs, program location, and mindsets. They also recognized that teachers needed help engaging with the families of children eligible for Summer Quest.

After diving deeper into enrollment and communications issues, the team identified and addressed potential barriers to participation, significantly increasing the number of eligible students signing up for and attending Summer Quest.

Photo credit: Jessica Scranton for FHI 360

TAKE ACTION

To address root challenges

Think about one summer learning challenge you want to tackle. Consider the following questions:

  • What do you know about the challenge?
  • What questions do you have?
  • What beliefs, practices, and structures need to change to address the challenge?

Test your thinking with staff, families, and students affected by the challenge.

Step 3: Engage key collaborators.

Four women sit and stand at a table to have a conversation.

Want to learn more about being a part of the network?

Find out how DSLN can help you improve your summer programs.

Email us at summerlearning@fhi360.org.

To create and sustain change, it’s important to connect with key audiences, help them understand your vision, break down district silos, and engage community partners in design and planning.

How DSLN puts this into practice

DSLN helps districts consider who needs to be involved to design and implement high-quality summer learning. This includes key staff–everyone from HR to curriculum to transportation–as well as partners, families, and the broader community. DSLN staff and consultants provide technical assistance to help district teams:

  • Nurture relationships
  • Develop effective communication strategies
  • Create structures to engage different audiences

so people can see their priorities and needs reflected in the district’s summer learning program.

To help decision makers and community members understand the power of summer learning, DSLN also works with districts to connect audience goals to summer. For instance, DSLN coaches teams to help superintendents and board members understand how a robust summer program can help advance overall district goals.

Step 3: Engage key collaborators.

"We brought more people to the table at the district level. [...] We had never met at that scale before."

Read how DSLN helped Blount County expand its planning team.
"We brought more people to the table at the district level. [...] We had never met at that scale before."

When Blount County Schools (AL) joined DSLN in summer 2022, district staff were no strangers to evidence-based summer learning. They had already incorporated recommendations from the Wallace Foundation's summer learning project and designed a robust set of camps to serve 1,700 students in grades K–8.

DSLN membership helped them more clearly articulate their summer learning goals and expand planning teams to enhance an already exceptional program.

With their coach, Blount County staff developed an overarching summer vision, mission, and beliefs. They also broadened their planning team to include everyone with a role in summer learning and created new opportunities for site teams to learn from each other. By adapting DSLN's Partnerships Tool, they created a map of summer learning opportunities, needs, and ways to deepen relationships with community organizations.

As a result, according to Superintendent Rodney Green, "the program is better than ever."

Want to learn more? Read about Blount County's summer learning program.

Denise Lybrand, a teacher at the Dreamcatchers summer learning program, encourages Jacob, a student, during an enrichment activity involving transporting marshmallows with a large spoon. Located at Susan Moore Elementary School in Blount County, Alabama, Dreamcatchers is offered by Blount County Schools, which participates in the District Summer Learning Network — a nationwide project led by FHI 360. Photo credit: Bita Honarvar for FHI 360

TAKE ACTION

To bring more voices to summer planning

Create a detailed list of individuals and groups who are critical to summer design, implementation, and sustainability. Note their roles, priorities, and ways you can engage them. Find opportunities to bring them into the planning—and to share and celebrate summer learning successes!

Step 4: Plan to measure success and act on your findings.

As you design your program, think about what it looks like to achieve your vision. How will you know you’ve succeeded? What data do you need to make that determination? Review and reflection points during implementation and after your program ends can help you take stock of your progress, celebrate wins, and consider changes both in-the-moment and for future years.

How DSLN puts this into practice

As DSLN districts envision their three-year arc and iterative annual goals, they identify metrics and plans for gathering data. For some, this means updating attendance systems or assessments; others introduce walk-through protocols, student surveys and protocols, community partner feedback, and more. Across the network, districts develop their own answers to these questions:

  • What did we do?
  • How well did we do it?
  • Who is better off?

DSLN also emphasizes the importance of data and continuous improvement as a summer learning sustainability strategy. DSLN districts collect qualitative and quantitative data to celebrate positive outcomes.

Summer learning leaders can share their stories of impact with families, community members, district staff, board members, and others–increasing buy-in and support for program continuation.

Step 4: Plan to measure success and act on your findings.

"By participating in DSLN, the team was able to pause, reflect, and reset. [...] I met with them, looked at the data, and did some goal setting. We used the [DSLN] Roadmap to set realistic goals for three years and developed a long-term plan."

Read how Howard County Public Schools created a data system to drive instruction.
"By participating in DSLN, the team was able to pause, reflect, and reset. [...] I met with them, looked at the data, and did some goal setting. We used the [DSLN] Roadmap to set realistic goals for three years and develop a long-term plan."

Before joining DSLN, the Howard County (MD) school district wanted a systematic way to evaluate summer program effectiveness. With no common measures, every department completed its own evaluation.

To develop a strong continuous improvement approach, district staff first identified what they would measure and how. 

This led to a system for enrollment and attendance that shows data by program, by site, and as a whole. The district can analyze data to identify areas where they have not been able to meet their goals.

Howard County also developed and administered surveys to students, families, and instructional and non-instructional staff.

The summer learning team compares responses by group, identifies gaps, reflects on possible reasons for those gaps, and finds ways to improve satisfaction and feedback. Site leaders then discuss the results and develop plans to address areas for improvement. Site supervisors share the data with program staff so everyone can reflect on program goals and strategies for implementation.

Now, Howard County can review data for multiple years, identify trends, continue to make necessary improvements, and celebrate. 

Photo credit: Jessica Scranton for FHI 360

TAKE ACTION

To start making incremental improvements

Choose a focus for continuous improvement planning. Create a data collection plan and a protocol for looking at data to make decisions about the program.

Starting small is fine!

District Summer Learning Network

From 2021–2025, FHI 360 built a network of over 100 districts and states to transform summer learning across the country. Big changes happened.

Find out how DSLN’s insights can help you.

Strategies for sustaining summer learning
Insight guide
State leadership of summer learning