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Summer Learning Program Evaluation Guide

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.

Research recommends that you “plan to administer pre- and post-tests, observe instructors, collect staff views about the summer program, and share evaluation data after the summer ends to improve the program over time and to reinforce community stakeholders’ commitment to retaining the summer program.” (RAND, 2018*) Our deep experience suggests that youth attendance and engagement; program quality; youth achievement, social-emotional learning, and well-being; family satisfaction and engagement; and teacher satisfaction and development are all important indicators of a program’s success.

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.

About SCRI

The Sperling Center for Research and Innovation (SCRI) is part of BellXcel, a national nonprofit with nearly 30 years’ experience innovating educational solutions rooted in evidence. Drawing on decades of firsthand implementation experience and a culture of continuous improvement, SCRI bridges the research to practice to policy gap, to help partners strengthen goals, implement high-quality practices, expand to reach more young people, and advocate for improved policies.

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