Summer School as a Learning Loss Recovery Strategy After COVID-19: Evidence from Summer 2022

To make up for pandemic-related learning losses, many U.S. public school districts have increased enrollment in their summer school programs. We assessed summer school as a strategy for COVID-19 learning recovery by tracking the academic progress of students who attended summer school in 2022 across eight districts serving 400,000 students. Using value-added models that control for students’ demographics and prior achievement, we estimated a positive effect of summer school on math test achievement (0.03 standard deviations) but not on reading tests. With only 13% of students participating, these districts’ summer programs closed ~2% of their total pandemic-related learning losses in math and none of their losses in reading.

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Publication Details

Journal
American Educational Research Journal
Published
2025-08-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312251355990
Citations
4
Primary Topic
Youth Substance Use and School Attendance
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
17.85

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article

Summer School as a Learning Loss Recovery Strategy After COVID-19: Evidence from Summer 2022

Atsuko Muroga, Emily Morton, Andrew McEachin, Jazmin Isaacs et al.
4 citations
American Educational Research Journal
Youth Substance Use and School Attendance
17.85
article

Summer School as a Learning Loss Recovery Strategy After COVID-19: Evidence from Summer 2022

Atsuko Muroga, Emily Morton, Andrew McEachin, Jazmin Isaacs, Douglas O. Staiger, Michael DeArmond, Dan Goldhaber, Daniel Dewey, Anna McDonald, Megan Kuhfeld, Thomas J. Kane, Elise Dizon-Ross, Maria V. Carbonari, Ian Callen
article en
4 citations

Abstract

To make up for pandemic-related learning losses, many U.S. public school districts have increased enrollment in their summer school programs. We assessed summer school as a strategy for COVID-19 learning recovery by tracking the academic progress of students who attended summer school in 2022 across eight districts serving 400,000 students. Using value-added models that control for students’ demographics and prior achievement, we estimated a positive effect of summer school on math test achievement (0.03 standard deviations) but not on reading tests. With only 13% of students participating, these districts’ summer programs closed ~2% of their total pandemic-related learning losses in math and none of their losses in reading.

American Educational Research JournalVol. 62(5)
Dartmouth College (US), American Institutes for Research (US), Educational Testing Service (US), Harvard University Press (US), California University of Pennsylvania (US), Dartmouth Hospital (GB), University of Virginia (US)
Carnegie Corporation of New York, Walton Family Foundation
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Youth Substance Use and School Attendance
17.85
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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