More than half of public schools report offering afterschool programs for students who need academic assistance

At the beginning of November, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a part of the Institute of Education Services, the research branch of the Department of Education, released findings from the September 2022 data collection of their School Pulse Panel (SPP) study. This study is aimed at measuring COVID-19’s impact on education by asking schools nationwide to complete monthly surveys during the 2022-2023 school year, and 1,010 schools responded in September 2022. This iteration of the survey asked respondents to report on afterschool and summer learning programs that are run at their schools, among other topics. Key findings include:

• When asked “Is your school offering any of the following after-school programs during the 2022-23 school year?” NCES found that:
  • A majority (56 percent) of respondents said they are offering programs for students who need academic assistance during the 2022-2023 school year.
  • More than 4 in 10 (44 percent) of public schools are offering afterschool programs for students who are seeking academic enrichment during the 2022-2023 school year.
• The survey also asked if these afterschool programs incorporated high-dosage tutoring, which is defined as “tutoring that takes place one-on-one or small group instruction, offered three or more times per week, is provided by educators or well-trained tutors, aligns with an evidenced-based core curriculum or program, and is also known as evidence-based or high-quality tutoring.”
  • Three in ten (30 percent) of the public schools that are providing programming for students who seek academic enrichment are offering high-dosage tutoring
• Another question asked, “During summer 2022, did your school offer any of the following programs?” 
  • Almost 7 in 10 (69 percent) of public schools offered summer school, which was mandatory for select students, throughout summer 2022. Many of these programs ran for at least five weeks, for five hours per day.
  • Seventy percent of public schools operated learning and enrichment programs that were hosted by their school or district during summer 2022.
  • Almost half (45 percent) of all respondents said their summer learning or enrichment was hosted by, or in coordination with partner organizations.
  • Twelve percent of schools said they were offering service-learning programs and youth work-based learning, and 11 percent had summer internship opportunities available.

It’s important to note that the questions are structured in a way that does not make it possible to know how many districts checked more than one type of afterschool offering or more than one type of summer programming. There is likely a great degree of duplication among the schools selecting the afterschool and summer options.

While reflecting on this new data, NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr. shared, "Schools are providing after-school programs to support their students, including programs for those who need extra support and those who are looking for additional learning opportunities.”

We share her enthusiasm for these promising findings, but also want to note that it’s unclear if many school and district definitions of afterschool align with our definition of comprehensive afterschool and are offering the holistic supports that we know youth and families need at this time.

To help us better understand how these new NCES data align with reports from the field, we’ve taken a look at these differences in definitions in two case studies in Kentucky and Connecticut, where our team analyzed American Rescue Plans (ARP) from districts in both states to explore if pandemic relief funding is going to comprehensive afterschool programs, and our new Engage Every Student fellows are continuing this work by examining other district plans. This data is also further evidence that programs have expanded in the past few years and to sustain those programs additional local, state, federal funding may be needed once ARP funds are exhausted. We’ll have much more to share on our findings as well as new pulse survey findings from NCES in the coming months.

Take a closer look at the data from the September NCES survey and previous months here, as well as the September survey questions.