Characteristics and Conditions of Successful K-8 Summer Programs

Summer school programs have been a part of national, state, and local education systems' instructional programming for decades. These programs exist in varying forms and rarely have a prescribed way in which they should be implemented. There is little to no research about teacher and administrator perceptions about these summer programs. The research in this study centers around obtaining teacher feedback via a working conditions survey and administrator feedback from interviews. In this mixed methods study, the researcher answers the research question: What characteristics and conditions need be present in public school summer programs to help students grow toward grade-level proficiency? Analyzing the feedback from the survey responses and interviews, the researcher will make recommendations concerning what improvements could be made to improve the conditions of summer school programs in a district with a high achievement gap. The Chapel Hill Carrboro City School district is the unit of study in the research. This is one of the highest performing districts in the state of North Carolina and consistently bears the ranking of one of the highest achievement gaps in the country. Results from this study indicated a significant discrepancy in favorable responses between a working conditions survey in a traditional school year versus summer programs. The administrator interviews gave insight into concerns around an unclear budget, which led to aspects of high-quality summer programs not being met. Implications for practitioners and policymakers were discussed, as well as possible, future research ideas connected to this topic. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]