SCRI analyzed staff survey responses from the BellXcel 2021 Summer program and identified key strategies and recommendations for finding and retaining high quality staff: stressing the importance of strong relationships and collaboration, promoting a positive teaching environment and culture, ensuring flexibility and autonomy for staff, providing supportive leadership, prioritizing the opportunity for personal and professional growth, and having materials and resources readily available and accessible.

SCRI recently sat down with Paul Reville, Harvard Graduate School of Education Professor and education visionary, to capture his thinking about post-pandemic schooling in America.

A comprehensive evaluation plan is critical to summer program quality and sustainability, and will provide you with a 360-degree view to identify program strengths as well as opportunities to improve in future summers. Use this guide to create evaluation plans that are aligned to research and evidence and better understand your impact, reflect on quality, identify program strengths and challenges, and develop processes for continuous improvement and long-term sustainability.

This checklist will help summer learning program leaders plan and execute site visits so that guests leave the experience feeling enthusiastic about your impact and invested in the long-term success of your program.

Tasked with planning and implementing remote learning for over 55 million children in the U.S. in the wake of COVID-19 school closures, districts and teachers relied heavily on families to support youth learning. SCRI discovered that remote summer programs using the BellXcel model were able to established supportive and consistent relationships between staff and families which empowered families to support their children’s learning. Staff integrated high-quality family engagement strategies throughout the program which included frequent communication and meaningful outreach to support participants.

This tool guides summer learning leaders through a series of questions to help you prepare for Day 1 / Week 1 and avoid common missteps.