Why Summer School Matters

College is a fundamental path many must go through to have the career they want. However, both the cost of higher education and the time required to complete a degree can prevent some from achieving this goal. As a college student myself, I have seen how my peers are impacted by financial troubles, and it often leads them to drop out of school altogether.

The average community college student takes three years to earn a two-year degree, which creates economic concerns for students, administrators, and policymakers.

Long delays to graduation are costly because they increase students’ time paying tuition and gaining debt and decrease the amount of time that students benefit from the higher pay a degree can offer.

Most community college students intend to transfer to a four-year college, but only about a quarter do so, according to “College Summer School: Educational Benefits and Enrollment Preferences” by Walton College’s Andy Brownback and Sally Sadoff (UC San Diego). Brownback and Sadoff examined research to examine if college summer school enrollment could accelerate degree progress and completion. This research seeks to further understand the benefits of summer school and why summer enrollment rates are so low.

Summer Enrollment Impacts Overall Degree Performance

Brownback and Sadoff randomly assigned summer scholarships to Ivy Tech Community College (Ivy Tech) students, and the results suggest that more students could benefit from summer classes than the number that currently enroll in them. The scholarships could be used for one summer course of up to three credit hours.

Within the study group, 33% of the students enrolled in the summer term before a scholarship had been offered. Summer enrollment increased to 52% after the scholarship offer. These results show that the scholarships helped students enroll as they would if money was not an obstacle. Evidence suggested the impact on earning a degree quicker was partially due to summer credits. The effect of summer enrollment on earning credits was approximately 40-52% of an entire fall or spring semester. This credit accumulation may be one reason why the researchers found such a large estimate for the impact of summer enrollment on degree acceleration.

Summer enrollment also improved grades in later courses, creating a positive impact on overall GPAs. The authors estimate this comes from the reduced courseloads required in the fall and spring due to earning credits over the summer. Research showed a correlation between summer enrollment and information retention into the next school year. Students who attended the summer term were also more likely to enroll in the following summer term.

These students were willing to sacrifice the value of their scholarship to receive a different scholarship in their desired term: most students in the research group held a preference for a fall scholarship rather than a summer scholarship.

The scholarships increased enrollment rates among both students who preferred fall and students who preferred summer.

These results show that whatever costs or barriers the students face, summer scholarships were highly effective at encouraging summer enrollment. Overall, students who disliked summer school or faced barriers to summer enrollment still benefit greatly when encouraged to enroll.

Financial Diversity Affects Summer Enrollment

Brownback and Sadoff also explored summer school on a more general level, addressing concerns about the extent to which the findings apply to a broader population. They thus observed every course that students enrolled in between the Fall 2016 and Summer 2019 semesters.

They discovered that greater financial need was associated with lower summer enrollment in certain populations. This research showed that the impact of the scholarships on one-year graduation or transfer rates was higher among Pell-eligible students as opposed to Pell-ineligible students. These results suggest that the intervention was more beneficial for students with higher financial needs. Those with greater need were significantly more responsive to the scholarship with their summer enrollment choices, and the graduation and transfer rates may also be higher among these students.

Brownback and Sadoff found that “summer students accumulated 81% more credits by the beginning of the summer term and have average GPAs over two times higher” than those who did not attend summer courses!

As for the students from the treatment group enrolling in summer courses, the differences in academic characteristics disappeared. Students no longer had higher baseline credits or higher GPAs. These results suggest that summer scholarships could help close achievement gaps in summer school enrollment. For example, students are more likely to retake a previously failed course in the summer term; incentivizing students to take summer classes may, however, increase the likelihood that students would retake courses that are barriers to finishing their degree.

When combining graduation and transfer rates, over 90% of students would see a positive impact from enrolling in summer classes.

Summer Enrollment Positively Impacts Both Students and Schools

Overall, summer school is a promising option for both students and schools. Fortunately for administrators and policymakers, many of the barriers students face can be solved with a relatively low-cost intervention.

Schools can see achievement gains if institutions expand summer enrollment. Summer scholarships are scalable, cost-effective, and take advantage of the underused resources during the summer term. Students who are less likely to consider summer school may benefit most from these opportunities and may not be fully aware of the benefits of summer courses.

Accelerating students’ degree progress matters. And these cost-effective summer-focused scholarships, which increased graduation and transfers rates, should be considered by more institutions as a means of increasing students’ long-term success rates.

Future research can examine the extent to which these results affect a larger population and explore what drives student preferences. From an educational policy and student success perspective, it could uncover interventions for students who experience the largest benefits from summer enrollment.