SUMMER SCHOOL CAN REMEDY PANDEMIC LEARNING LOSS, Opinion by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, mayor of New York City, 2002-2013 

The crisis in American public education caused by the pandemic has settled into a dangerous new phase: resignation. The disastrous effects of remote instruction are still with us. Students continue to lag behind where they should be—sometimes by multiple grade levels—and little is being done to help them. The good news is that we know how to overcome learning loss. 

Last year, when it became clear that a nationwide expansion of summer school would not be happening, I led a group of philanthropists in creating Summer Boost in New York City. The program focused on math and English and was open to struggling K-8 students in the city’s public charter schools, most of which did not have the resources to run robust summer school programs…

The response from students and schools was resoundingly positive. More than 16,000 students from 224 schools participated. At the end of the summer, we tested students to assess their progress, and the results were encouraging…

Philanthropists can’t fund all the summer schools the nation needs, but they can fund more of them. Because of the strong results we saw in New York City, we have decided to run the program again this summer—and expand it to charter schools in seven other cities: Baltimore, Birmingham, Ala., Indianapolis, Memphis, Tenn., Nashville, Tenn., San Antonio, and Washington. By working with local leaders, we hope to more than double the number of students we serve…