GIVE A SUMMER FOR SCHOOL EAnalysis 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 Summerramon@giveasummer.orgGiveaSummer.org

Surveys from fall 2015Presented 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

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

Slide #4678101315252628

4

Executive summary: key factsPast 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 8 th graders – consistent with their

lower interest and program satisfaction – as is being needed at home.

5

Executive summary: key actionsHighlight 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.

6

A high 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.

7

58% of 4-8th graders who took the survey participated in a summer program

• 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

• 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

• 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 6 th 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 8 th grade student interest also occurs with 8th grade parents.

Parent interest in programs is exceptionally strong, even stronger than student interest

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

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• 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 program last year are more than 50% more likely to want to attend a program next summer• 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• 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.

• 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) program cost and conflicts with family plans

• 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.

• 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

• 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

• 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.

Only parents asked Q

Only students asked Q

21

Give a Summer has developed a system for identifying which barriers to focus on

• 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

• 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 program but didn’t go to one last year report much higher barriers for i) programs don’t interest them and ii) program expense

• 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• 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.

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.

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

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

• 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 #293031323738394041

29

When students did attend programs, they overwhelmingly did so for at least a few weeks

• 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• 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

32

Barriers based on past attendance: 4th grade students

33

Barriers based on past attendance: 5th grade students

• 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

35

Barriers based on past attendance: 7th grade students

36

Barriers based on past attendance: 8th grade students

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

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.

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 in August• Far fewer students take a vacation in June

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.

41

Comment on programs students attend

• See accompanying Excel for data on all the 39 programs that YZ 4 th 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.