The National Summer School Initiative implementation study

The National Summer School Initiative (NSSI) was a five-week national, largely synchronous, virtual summer program launched in the summer of 2020 with 11,769 rising 4th through 9th grade participants from schools serving large concentrations of low-income students of color. Program leaders recruited “mentor teachers” they considered to be highly talented from across the country to provide professional development to “partner teachers” from 50 participating schools or networks across 17 states and the District of Columbia. Mentor teachers also provided partner teachers with videos of themselves teaching daily lessons to their own student groups four to five days in advance of the partner teachers leading their classes through the same content. Partner teachers could play portions of these videos in class or use them to deliver the lesson entirely themselves. 

This study examines stakeholder perceptions of the effects NSSI had on students and teachers, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the program. 

 Key findings: 

(1) Stakeholders perceived that students made academic improvements 

 “Students learned” was among the most frequent themes that emerged from our interviews with mentor and partner teachers. 

 Among those responding to the post-program surveys, sizeable majorities of partner teachers, mentor teachers, parents, and students themselves agreed that students improved their academic skills and gained confidence in their academic abilities (ranging from 68 to 81% depending on the question and stakeholder group). For example, 81% of students agreed they grew as readers and learned new strategies to solve math problems. 

(2) Stakeholders perceived that the content was rigorous, relevant, and engaging—especially for ELA  Themes related to the curriculum’s rigor, cultural relevance, and ability to generate engagement were some of the most frequent teacher interview themes. This was especially true when it came to the ELA curriculum and its novel selections.

 A large majority (84%) of partner teacher survey respondents agreed that the curriculum and lesson materials provided by NSSI were strong.

  Students themselves reported high levels of engagement. By the last week of the program, for example, 88% of student survey respondents reported attending NSSI either “almost everyday” or “everyday.” 

(3) Stakeholders thought that the math pedagogy was accessible and rigorous but believed the math content could have been more culturally relevant 

 Teacher interviewees said the approach to math instruction was engaging and rigorous for students at a variety of skill levels. A focus on discourse and multiple methods for solving the same problem allowed lower-performing students to access the material, while a focus on developing flexibility kept the rigor high for more advanced students. 

 A majority of students completing the survey agreed that they learned new strategies to solve math problems (81%) and agreed that they became increasingly comfortable solving math problems in more than one way (72%). 

 Despite these strengths, interviewees believed the content of the math problems themselves could have been more exciting and culturally relevant to increase student engagement further. (

(4) Stakeholders did not report high levels of student enthusiasm for the movement and mindfulness content 

 Fully half of the administrative coaches who responded to the survey indicated disagreement with the statement “movement & mindfulness was effective” and student survey responses did not indicate particularly high levels of student engagement with this content. Teacher interviewees echoed this conclusion and suggested that at least part of the issue was with the asynchronous nature of this class. 

(5) Partner teachers perceived that the program improved their instruction 

 Partner teacher interviewees generally indicated that they believed their own teaching benefited as a result of participating in NSSI—both their ability to teach in a virtual or hybrid environment and their pedagogical skills more broadly. This was, in large part, due to their access to the mentor teachers and videos of these teachers delivering lessons in advance, which provided a notably rare opportunity to observe other educators in action. 

 Among partner teacher survey respondents, 80% agreed that the “daily lesson videos and lesson flow documents provided by the mentor teacher are strong” and 79% agreed, “I am learning from my mentor teacher.” A large majority agreed with the statement, “I will be a better teacher in the 2020-21 school year because of teaching at NSSI” including 57% who strongly agreed. 

(6) Mentor teachers enjoyed the program and felt their own practice improved 

 Mentor teachers in both interviews and surveys indicated that they enjoyed participating in the program—despite the major commitment it involved—and even felt their own instruction improved as a result of teaching virtually and collaborating with other talented educators across the country. They also suggested that teaching the same lessons a few days before their partner teachers helped improve their ability to provide professional development to those teachers. Our interview subjects appreciated the opportunity to extend their reach to more teachers and students without “leaving the classroom,” and survey respondents unanimously agreed the program increased their enthusiasm about teaching. 

(7) Teachers appreciated receiving adaptable curricular materials 

 Partner teacher interviewees expressed appreciation that NSSI provided what they perceived to be high-quality curricular materials and lesson plans that teachers could adapt to their own teaching style and student needs. They indicated that not having to craft their own lesson plans saved them significant time that they could instead devote to internalizing lessons ahead of delivery, and to providing feedback to and building relationships with students. 

(8) Teachers wanted the professional development to be more differentiated 

 Although partner teachers generally felt NSSI helped them improve as educators, many felt that the time devoted to professional development could have been more effectively differentiated, particularly to increase the value for experienced teachers. However, a majority of partner teacher survey respondents still viewed the professional development positively, with 61% agreeing intellectual prep was helping them become stronger teachers and 57% agreeing that the time spend analyzing student work was helpful.

  Administrators and mentor teachers were less positive. Among the administrator survey respondents, only a bit more than half (54%) agreed that the “daily intellectual prep PD made my teachers stronger” and only 41% agreed that the “daily student work analysis made my teachers stronger.” Among mentor teachers, 57% thought intellectual prep and only 29% that the student work analysis time was making partner teachers stronger. 

 Some teacher interviewees wished there had been opportunities for mentor teachers to conduct classroom observations of partner teachers to inform their coaching. The virtual nature of the program could in theory have facilitated such observations, though implementation may have been challeng