By Sara McAlister, Rhea Almeida, Natasha Berger, and Imani Wilson

From enlisting a local former Olympian to inspire young people with his journey to collaborating with Cherokee Nation elders for immersive cultural activities like basket weaving and stickball, some rural school districts are drawing on partnerships with local communities to bring students enriching, fun and engaging summer learning opportunities that they otherwise might not be able to access.

Opportunities and challenges for summer learning in rural districts

About 20% of students in the United States attend rural schools. These schools share certain assets such as “resilience, adaptability, strong family involvement, and close connections to businesses and their communities” (O’Connell, 2023). Smaller rural communities are often tight-knit, making it easier for schools to build close relationships with students, families, and local community organizations like churches, businesses, and libraries (Johnson et al., 2021). Schools play a key role as community institutions and have economic importance in rural areas as major employers. Because of their importance to their communities, they draw multi-generational involvement in school activities (Azano et al., 2019).

That said, rural districts also face unique challenges. Students in rural districts tend to start kindergarten slightly ahead of non-rural students academically but fall behind by middle school; importantly, this gap is compounded by larger summer learning losses in rural areas (Johnson et al., 2021). Many rural communities lack major providers of free and low-cost summer enrichment like YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs. Access to cultural resources like museums or recreation centers is limited, particularly for rural families of color and low-income families (Afterschool Alliance, 2021). Transportation systems are more expensive and challenging to operate. Unfortunately, the distinct needs in rural education — and specifically rural summer learning – are sometimes neglected, both in policy and in research.

The power of community; Partnerships for summer learning

To address these challenges and improve student opportunities in the summer, rural districts within the District Summer Learning Network (DSLN) are tapping into the assets of close-knit community members and local partners to expand and enhance their summer learning programs. DSLN has helped more than 100 school districts and six states design, implement, and sustain high-quality, evidence-based summer learning programs that prepare students for academic success and support their wellbeing. Funded by The Wallace Foundation, DSLN is designed and led by FHI 360, with NYU Metro Center's Policy, Research and Evaluation (PRE) team serving as the research partner.

In DSLN, community partners are key players in planning and implementing engaging, well-rounded summer learning. Particularly for rural districts, community partnerships can help fill in gaps in programming, provide supplies and funding, and bring career exposure and enriching opportunities to students who don’t have access to them otherwise. Connecting with community members and businesses can give rural students access to more locally contextualized curricular resources, ease their school-to-work transition, and provide a sense of place and belonging (Bauch, 2001).

In this Snapshot, we describe four rural districts working to design summer learning that blends core academics with exciting enrichment opportunities. Each of the four rural districts featured has built a range of strong partnerships to extend and enhance summer learning opportunities. Importantly, the informal, close-knit nature of rural areas lend themselves to more flexible and creative configurations of partnerships, as districts tap a unique mix of local community assets, resources and networks to broaden horizons and opportunities in the summer.