Analysis of summer participation, interests, and barriers at a Boston area public middle school.

1. GIVE A SUMMER FOR
SCHOOL E
Analysis of the summer participation, future
summer plans, and barriers to summer
programs for School E’s students (4th to 8th
graders) and areas for action.
Prepared by Give a Summer
ramon@giveasummer.org
GiveaSummer.org
Surveys from fall 2015
Presented to School E January 2016

2. Background on report
• This is the public version of a report prepared by Give a Summer for a Boston area
middle school analyzing the summer participation, future plans, and barriers facing their
students. The school is referred to throughout the report as “School E.”
• With School E’s approval, Give a Summer is releasing a public versions of the report to
show how communities can better understand and support youth participation in
summer opportunities.
• Give a Summer believes that getting communities to collect and analyze data about
where and why kids miss out on summer programs will:
• improve youth access to summer programs by broadly identifying high-need areas
and barriers to summer program participation
• empower youth-serving organizations, such as schools and mentoring
organizations, to more effectively target and support individual students to make
great summer plans
• strengthen advocacy efforts by clarifying the need for opportunities
• increase public accountability for improvement
2

3. Outline of presentation
• Executive Summary
• Findings: response rates
• Findings: Previous summer program participation
• Findings: Previous summer program enjoyment
• Findings: Upcoming summer plans
• Findings: Interest by type of program
• Findings: Barriers to summer participation
• Findings: Motivation for parent interest
• Areas for action
• Appendix
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Slide #
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6
7
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10
13
15
25
26
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4. Executive summary: key facts
Past attendance: 58% of 4th – 8th graders attended a program, with participation slightly higher
in younger grades.
Satisfaction: Students enjoy their programs: 41% rated their program a 5 (out of 5), with
another 30% rating it a 4.
Future plans: Students and parents have strong interest in attending a program. 44% of
students are interested (with another 33% not sure), while 77% of parents are interested.
Types of summer programs: Students are well matched with programs. Even students who
say they’re not interested in a summer program are interested in a wide variety of types of
programs.
Barriers: The key barrier facing School E families is program expense, which way by far the
biggest barrier reported by parents, a major barrier reported by students, and even more of a
problem for students who were not able to attend a program last summer.
• Lack of interest in programs is an important barrier facing 8th graders – consistent with their
lower interest and program satisfaction – as is being needed at home.
4

5. Executive summary: key actions
Highlight great programs to students: Share information about the many programs students are
already attending and really enjoy
Distinguish support by grade:
• 4th grade: highlight low cost programs and programs with flexible schedules; keep in mind challenges
signing up and showing up for these students
• 5th grade: highlight low cost programs
• 6th grade: in a grade with high (>60%) parent response rates, inconvenient program hours was a key
factor for parents whose children did not attend
• 7th grade: build student interest and keep in mind students may be needed at home
• 8th grade: major challenges from lower interest, need for low cost programs, and being needed at home
Personalize support to students i) who are interested in attending but who didn’t last year, ii) whose
parents are interested in them attending but who didn't’ attend last year, and iii) who are unsure
about attending but report only have one or two major barriers. Personal outreach to those 37
students could be especially effective to help them access summer opportunities.
• Share homeroom-specific info sheets on these students with teachers.
Use student-level data on barriers to effectively connect students with programs that match their
interests and needs. The accompanying Excel file has student-level data on past and upcoming
attendance, interest in different types of programs, as well as student ratings of summer program barriers
to help effectively and efficiently connect students with summer programs that match their needs. It also
includes the name and student reviews of all 39 programs that School E students attended this past
summer.
5

6. Ahigh percentage of students responded, though that varied by grade. Parent responses
were lower – though in line with other Give a Summer schools – but with very high 6th and
7th grade response rates.
6

7. 58% of 4-8th graders who took the survey participated in a summer program
7
• Participation was fairly consistent across grades, though slightly higher in younger grades
• Participation is in line with participation rates at other Give a Summer schools (40% - 60%)
• Parents of 4th – 8th graders reported slightly higher program participation of 67%. In other schools,
students and parents were in close agreement about program participation.
Did you attend a summer program?

8. Students enjoy their programs, though satisfaction tails off with older students
8
• Students enjoy their programs, with 41% rating it a 5 (out of 5) and another 30% giving it a 4. Only 7%
of students rated programs a 1 or 2.
• The strength of student satisfaction tails off, with 56% of 4th graders rating programs a 5 while only 31%
of 8th graders did.
Did you enjoy the program? (5 is yes, 1 is no)

9. Parents are very happy with programs, even more so than students
9
• 73% of parents who responded rated their student’s program a 5 (out of 5). None rated it 1 or 2.
• Parents who responded had children who were more satisfied with programs than with students in
general, suggesting the parents who did respond are not perfectly representative of all parents.
• Adjusting for lower parent response rates, parents still had modestly higher program satisfaction than
students.
Did you enjoy the program? (5 is yes, 1 is no)

10. • However, lower parent response rates – 40% vs. 70% for students – may lead to selection bias where
parents who responded to the survey are more interested in summer programs than parents who didn’t.
• Parent interest was modestly – thought not substantially – lower for 6th and 7th grade parents who had >60%
response rates vs. 4th and 5th grade parents who had <35% response rates.
• Unfortunately, no 8th grade parents completed the survey, so we do not know whether the drop-off in 8th grade
student interest also occurs with 8th grade parents.
Parent interest in programs is exceptionally strong, even stronger than student
interest
10
Do you want to attend a summer program this coming summer?

11. • Interest falls from above 50% of 4th and 5th graders to just 13% of 8th graders.
• Notably, students shift from being interested to being not sure if they want to attend.
• Action: Focus on 8th graders not sure of attending a program given the grade-wide factors that may be
pushing them out of summer program attendance.
• The percent of students who do not want to attend a program is constant across grades (with the exception of
an increase among 6th graders).
Strong student interest in earlier grades becomes much less committed by 8th
grade
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Do you want to attend a summer program this coming summer?

12. Student program attendance roughly tracks student interest, though there is
opportunity to help more students who are unsure attend a program
12
• Overall, 45% of students want to go to a program next summer, and 78% want to go or unsure. In
comparison, 58% of students went to a program last year.
• Action: This suggests an opportunity to help more students attend a program who want to
go to one or are on the fence about going to one.

13. Students who attended a programlast year are more than 50% more likely to
want to attend a programnext summer
13
• Only 14% of students who went to a program last summer do not want to go to one next summer,
another indicator of strong satisfaction with programs.
• Of students who did not go to a program, a substantial 34% want to go to a program.
• Action: Focus efforts on students who want to go to a program next summer but didn’t go to one last
year. They may be unusually receptive to help finding a program and an effective use of resources to
increase student program participation.
Interest in attending a summer program based on previous attendance

14. Students are well matched with the wide variety of programs they want to attend
14
• Overall, students attend different types of programs in very similar rates to the percent of students who want to
participate in those types of activities
• Students participate in and are interested in a wide variety of programs
• There is not much of a difference in the activity interests of students who want to go to a program vs. students
who are not sure or do not want to go.
• Surprisingly, students who say they are not interested in attending a program report they’re interested in a wide
variety of programs (red bars in below chart).
• Action: for students not interested in summer programs, focus on highlight specific types of programs to move
pass negative views on summer programs in general.
What do students do over the summer and what do they want to do?
(students grouped by interest in attending a program this summer)

15. Students and parents rated the impact of the following barriers to attending great
summer programs.
15
• Students and parents were asked to rate how important various potential barriers were to
participating in summer programs.
• Below, the text of those barriers is presented and barriers are grouped into categories.
• Students and parents rated barriers as a “Big deal”, “Small deal”, or “Does not apply”
• Those descriptions were converted to scores: “Big deal” is a 2, “Small deal” is 1, “Does not apply” is 0

16. Overall, students face many moderate barriers revolving around i) lack of interest
and ii) programcost and conflicts with family plans
16
• While overall barriers provide a useful backdrop, the key insights are in the following slides
that unpack which barriers may be driving program participation.

17. Program expense is a substantially greater concern for parents than students, though
on the whole parents and students rated barriers very similarly.
17
• Parents also are more concerned about transportation, while students rate lack of interest higher.
• Parents who responded had children who rated barriers modestly lower than students overall.
Consequently, Give a Summer’s best estimate for all parent’s barrier ratings results in slightly higher
barriers, particularly with program expense.
Only parents asked Q Only students asked Q

18. Program expense, being needed at home, and lack of interest in program options,
were swing barriers that affected more students who did not attend programs
18
• Different ratings for these barriers depending on students’ previous participation suggest these may be
swing barriers affecting eventual student participation.
• We do not know why students feel they may be needed at home: to take care of a older relative or a
younger sibling, because they want to be at home, or because their parents want them around the
house. As the next slide shows, parents do not rate this highly.
• Family vacation conflicts was not at all a swing barrier at School E, whereas it has been at other schools

19. Expense is a major swing barrier for parents as well; most other barriers were slightly
greater for parents whose children did not attend than for those whose children did
19
• Program expense, in addition to being a large barrier, is an even larger barrier for parents whose children
did not attend a program, suggesting it is affecting families’ decisions.
• At other Give a Summer schools, expense was not always a larger barrier for parents whose children
did not attend, perhaps because some of those parents were strongly not interested in programs and
hadn’t looked into program costs to know that they would be a challenge for them.
• Action: above all other barriers, prioritize informing parents about lower cost programs

20. Students and parents rate barriers similarly regardless of interest in summer
programs, suggesting that other factors are driving interest.
20
Only parents asked Q
Only students asked Q

21. Give a Summer has developed a systemfor identifying which barriers to focus on
21
• There are good reasons to look at overall barrier ratings as well as how barriers may differ between
students who attended and did not attend programs and between students who are interested and aren’t
attending a program next summer.
• Give a Summer has combined these different perspectives to more clearly identify which barriers to
focus on. Below is a table describing our formula, while the next slide displays the results.

22. Overall, the main barrier to focus on is program expense
22
• Other key barriers to focus on are:
• being needed at home (particularly for 4th, 7th, and 8th graders)
• conflict with family vacations (for 4th and 8th graders)
• showing up at a program after signing up for it (for 4th, 7th, and 8th graders)

23. Students who are interested in attending a programbut didn’t go to one last year
report much higher barriers for i) programs don’t interest them and ii) program
expense
23
• There are 19 students who want to attend a program but who didn’t last year. They seem like promising
students to focus personalized support on as adult support may help these students problem solve the
barriers holding them back from realized their interest in attending a program.

24. Parent motivations for their children to attend summer programs vary
24
• More than 50% of parents wanted their children to attend a program to get ahead in school or have fun.
• Substantial % of parents also wanted their children to attend to make friends or be someplace safe.
• Parent motivations were similar across grades, with 4th grade parents expressing higher, across-the-
board motivations.
• Motivations clumped together:
• If a parent was interested in their children having fun at a program, they were also much more
interested than parents generally in their child making friends, and vice versa.
• If a parent wanted their child to be someplace self or have childcare, there likelihood of also being
motivated by the other factor also increased significantly.
• Parents interested in their child getting ahead in school had broadly similar other motivations to
parents generally.

25. Students who are more concerned about vacation
conflicts took longer family vacations last summer
• Still: even for the 24% of students who rated family vacation conflicts a big deal, 38% of them did
not take a family vacation last summer. 27% of students who rated vacation conflicts a big deal only
took a vacation for a week, leaving lots of time to still attend great summer programs.
• Action: follow up with students who say vacation conflicts are a major challenge about summer
opportunities as it is likely that many of them will not end up taking a vacation (or that long a
vacation) and may be able to attend a summer program.
25
Even for students who
say vacation conflicts
are a problem, many of
them did not take a
vacation or a long one
last summer

26. There are several school and grade-wide steps to increase student access and
participation in summer programs.
26
Distinguish support by grade:
• 4th grade: highlight low cost programs and programs with flexible schedules; keep in mind
challenges signing up and showing up for these students
• 5th grade: highlight low cost programs
• 6th grade: in a grade with high (>60%) parent response rates, inconvenient program hours was a
key factor for parents whose children did not attend
• 7th grade: build student interest and keep in mind students may be needed at home
• 8th grade: major challenges from lower interest, need for low cost programs, and being needed at
home
Increase student excitement – and therefore, likely participation – by highlighting great
programs to students and parents
• Action: Share some of the great programs students attended with students who did not attend a
program last year. Incorporate students who attended a program to spread the word.
• Action: even students who do not want to attend a program are interested in a wide variety of types
of programs. Share specific program options with students to get past negative general associations
with “summer programs.”

27. School E can also focus support on specific groups of students
27
Three groups of students seem like promising ones to focus personalized support on:
• 1) Student wants to attend but didn’t last summer (19 students)
• Relative to other students, program expense and lack of knowledge with programs that interest
the student were major barriers
• 2) Parent wants student to attend but student didn’t last summer (7 students)
• 3) Student not sure of attending but only faces one or two major barriers (18 students)
• In total, 37 students across School E fall into one of these categories. To narrow down that list, you
can overlay judgment about individual student needs.
• Action: share homeroom-specific info sheets on students to focus on
Use student-level data on barriers to effectively connect students (and families) with programs
that match their needs. The attached Excel file has student-level data on attendance and summer
program barriers to help effectively and efficiently connect students with summer programs that match
their needs.
• Action: Use the file to best match students with programs (for example, highlighting a low cost
program to the XX students for whom program expense was a major barrier)
• Action: Look at data on all the programs School E students attended for ideas about programs that
may be great suggestions for other students
• Action: Share “top students to focus on” with each classroom teacher.

28. Appendix
28
• Length of program attendance
• Types of programs & program barriers
• Barriers by grade
• Barriers based on past attendance, by grade
• Vacation and non-vacation, by grade
• Breakdown of vacation length, by grade
• Vacation, by month
• Vacation length based on current vacation barrier
• Comment on programs students attend
Slide #
29
30
31
32
37
38
39
40
41

29. When students did attend programs, they overwhelmingly did so for at least a
few weeks
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• However, about 1/3 of 8th grade program participants only attended for a week

30. Program-related barriers (expense, transportation, vacation conflicts) are not
strongly associated with certain types of programs
30
• Students with large program-related barriers are not disproportionally interested in certain types of
programs, which might have suggested that students were confronting those barriers at those programs.
Do students with program-related barriers have different activity preferences than other
students?

31. By and large, barriers are similar across grades
31

32. Barriers based on past attendance: 4th grade students
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33. Barriers based on past attendance: 5th grade students
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• Interestingly, 5th grade students who did attend programs report several substantially higher barriers than
their peers who did not attend programs.

34. Barriers based on past attendance: 6th grade students
34

35. Barriers based on past attendance: 7th grade students
35

36. Barriers based on past attendance: 8th grade students
36

37. 50% of students took a vacation, though that varies
considerably by grade
• 6th and 7th graders took fewer vacations
• 4th and 5th graders took the most vacation
37

38. Across grades, among students who took a vacation,
about 50% went for just a week, 30% for several weeks,
and 20% for a month or more
• This perspective is trying to understand if – among students who take a vacation –the range
of vacation lengths is similar across grades.
• With the noticeable exception of 6th grade, the typical lengths of student vacations are very
similar.
38
6th grade vacation patterns are an outlier, though
6th grade also had fewer students take vacation

39. 25% of students will take a vacation in July and 25% will
take a vacation inAugust
• Far fewer students take a vacation in June
39

40. Student vacation lengths in different months
• The analysis below looks to see – among students who took a vacation in a particular month – the
% who marked down different vacation lengths.
• Importantly, students could take several vacations over the summer that add up to a longer
vacation. We did not directly ask how long was the vacation in each month, and we can’t know for
certain.
• For example, a student may report they took a vacation for a few weeks and took a vacation in June, July, and
August. In reality, they just took 3 different 1-week vacations.
• The chart below would say that they were in the “a few weeks’ categories for June, July, and August.
• Key takeaway: students who take June vacations are likely to take much more vacation over the
summer as a whole. Students who take vacations in August are least likely to take a lot of vacation
over the summer as a whole.
40

41. Comment on programs students attend
41
• See accompanying Excel for data on all the 39 programs that YZ 4th to 8th graders at
School E attended.
• The most common programs students at School E were: ABC, DEF, GHI, and JKL. Each
of those programs had 8 or more students attend them.