Summer learning succeeds with powerful partnerships

Photo credit: Jessica Scranton for FHI 360

Caption: Seventh grade students Dai Youmans (left) and Clara Viars (right) smile during art class at Durham School of the Arts.

By Nancy Gannon, Senior Technical Advisor at FHI 360 and director of the District Summer Learning Network.

Five years after the onset of COVID-19, summer learning has emerged as one of the most potent strategies for academic recovery and wellbeing. At FHI 360, we understand the potential summer has to transform young people’s lives. Through the District Summer Learning Network (DSLN), we provide coaching and professional learning to more than 140 school districts to help them design and plan sustainable, high-quality summer learning programs. Our DSLN members and their community partners are doing extraordinary work to strengthen literacy, support multilingual learners, provide opportunities for older youth, and more.

One of the biggest challenges facing districts and youth-serving organizations, especially those serving economically disenfranchised communities, is a lack of resources. Public and private programs often work in silos with different sources of funding. But our DSLN members have proven that summer learning thrives when adults come together in partnership. Through partnerships, organizations can pool their resources and make them go farther with blended staffing. Community groups and schools can work together to expand their individual strengths and offer young people a wide variety of experiences. Moreover, powerful partnerships can create programs that are sustainable not only during the summer months, but throughout the whole year.

Joining Forces to Offer More Robust Programs

Funding. Qualified staff. Safe learning spaces. Transportation. Meals. High-quality instructional materials. Enrichment experiences. These kinds of summer learning resources are often in short supply in communities where our most vulnerable young people live. But when districts and community organizations join forces, they can create robust summer programs and serve the same students instead of inadvertently competing for them.

One district that has done this particularly well is Seattle Public Schools. When they faced recruitment and financial challenges, DSLN helped them create a blended program with teachers and community-based organizations. The program is now fully staffed and fully funded. Providence, Rhode Island, models a deep partnership across stakeholders, including Providence Public Schools, Providence After School Alliance (PASA), the municipality, and a range of community organizations.

Partnerships also allow districts and community-based organizations (CBOs) to create programs that build on each other’s capabilities and offerings. This could look like programs that combine different areas of expertise, like research-aligned literacy instruction and positive youth development practices that center youth engagement, like building in choice during activities. Partnering with CBOs who have strong local ties can also help districts improve recruitment and family engagement by incorporating community voices into program design and evaluation.

When they were trying to find solutions to learning loss caused by the pandemic, DSLN member Birmingham City Schools in Alabama overhauled their summer learning strategy. To reach their enrollment goals, they designed programs that appealed to both young people and their families, and identified organizations who could offer engaging, varied activities. Now, they offer programs for pre-K students, coding camps, literacy and math acceleration, and wellness, fine arts, and career and technical exploration for older students. The district has partnered with an array of organizations that lead different themes and have different strengths, offering young people real choices about how they spend their summer. The result: well-attended summer programs and higher levels of student achievement in math and literacy. And in Stigler, Oklahoma, the school district collaborates with the Choctaw Nation’s Partnership of Summer School Education (POSSE) program to fund summer learning programs that incorporate cultural materials, teachers, and field trips.

Partnerships can also lead to more sustainable programs, a perennial issue that’s become more pressing in today’s environment. Washington Elementary School District in Arizona and the City of Phoenix Public Library worked together to use both financial and in-kind resources to extend the reach of their summer program. The library provides camp incentives, and the school district helped 640 students sign up for library cards. In Minnesota, DSLN districts faced budget challenges due to the state’s summer funding formula. They collaborated with the state afterschool network, Ignite Afterschool, and shared summer learning impact stories that the network used to advocate for solutions. This kind of partnership can help improve sustainability for summer and afterschool programs through legislation that increases funding streams.

Summer Learning Partnerships: Where Do I Start?

July 14-18, 2025 is National Summer Learning Week, and this is the perfect time to build partnerships. Here are three ways to get started:

1. Invite potential collaborators to visit your program and see what you’re doing.
2. Use DSLN’s free Partnerships for Summer Learning tool to assess current and potential partnerships and create goals for next summer.
3. As this year’s programs wrap up, consider incorporating partnerships into your continuous improvement activities. This could include working together to create program survey questions; sharing data, where appropriate; and inviting partners to after action reviews.

With uncertainty surrounding federal funding to support these vital programs for young people, partnerships offer practical solutions for stretching resources to offer robust programs and build sustainability. They can also remind us that we are not alone, that there are others in our community that share our passion and commitment to the lives of young people.

Want to learn more about the District Summer Learning Network? Visit the DSLN Hub and check out our Insights Guide for summer learning spotlights, recommendations, and free resources to support high quality summer programs.