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Engaging Cambridge Middle School Youth in Out-of-School Time Opportunities 2018

Give a Summer's groundbreaking report with Cambridge Public Schools learned what Cambridge students do over the summer and afterschool, what they want to do, and what challenges they face. 

We found that almost all Cambridge students were interested in out of school activities but that their interests and challenges vary and as a result, that young people need individualized support.

This is the most in-depth, comprehensive analysis done by any school district on their students' engagement with summer and afterschool opportunities. 

 
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Why youth access to summer opportunities matters and how we can understand and increase it

Give a Summer's 2016 report finds interest, engagement, and barriers vary across Boston area public middle schools, emphasizing the importance of local data to increase youth access. The report is also a groundbreaking comparison of parent and children perceptions of summer opportunities and finds they largely overlap. 

Read our op-ed in Commonwealth magazine about the report. 

 

Explore examples of Give a Summer's work with its school partners

Below are public, anonymized versions of the analysis Give a Summer created for some of our first school partners. Give a Summer is also sharing 1 page summaries we created for our partners as well as action sheets we created for each homeroom teacher that highlight particular students, and those students’ summer preferences and challenges, who might especially benefit from personalized support.

For schools we continue to work with, we label them School A, School B, etc. so that you can look at how the summer opportunities and challenges at the same school can change – or stay the same – from year to year.

Give a Summer's work with schools since 2017 is reflected in the above reports. 

2015 - 2016 school year

  • Public report from fall 2015 work with School A, a Boston area public middle school (93% student response rate to surveys)

  • Public report from fall 2015 work with School B, a Boston area public middle school (98% student response rate to surveys)

  • Public report from fall 2015 work with School C, a Boston area public middle school (90% student response rate to surveys). 1 page summary of key actions for School C. 

  • Public report from fall 2015 work with School D, a Boston area public middle school (87% student response rate to surveys). 1 page summary of key actions for School D. 

  • Public report from fall 2015 work with School E, a Boston area public middle school (71% student response rate to surveys). 1 page summary of key actions for School E. 

    • Action sheet created for each classroom teacher highlighting a few students whom the teacher might most help access summer programs as well as information about those students [this data is illustrative]

2014 - 2015 school year

  • Public report from 227 student surveys in May 2015 at a program in schools across the Boston area

  • Public report from spring 2015 work with School A, a Boston area public middle school (96% student response rate to surveys)

  • Public report from spring 2015 work with School B, a Boston area public middle school (98% student response rate to surveys)

  • Public report from spring 2015 work with School C, a Boston area public middle school (95% student response rate to surveys)

  • Public report from spring 2015 work with School D, a Boston area public middle school (82% student response rate to surveys)