The Weekly Connect 12/15/2025

NWEA: School’s in for Summer: A Scalable and Effective Post-Pandemic Academic Intervention
Researchers from NWEA collaborated with CALDER at the American Institutes for Research and Harvard University to measure the impact of summer school on student achievement. Utilizing data from ten large school districts across the United States in 2022 and 2023, the research indicated that summer school improved students’ math achievement, but not their reading skills. Students’ improvements in their math skills were equivalent to two to three weeks of learning during the school year. Additionally, students who participated for more than one year of summer school had increased benefits. Programs measured in this study were less effective per hour of instruction compared to pre-pandemic programs. The researchers recommend that schools follow evidence-based practices for running summer schools, such as enforcing small class sizes and longer programs.

Journal of Youth and Adolescence: Future Orientation in Adolescents: Development and the Roles of Parenting in Different Income Countries  
The present study investigates how adolescents’ future orientation, the ability to envision and plan for the future, develops. The researchers measured over 1,000 adolescents between the ages of ten and 20 in countries of varying income levels. Adolescents reported on their level of future orientation, and parents reported on their frequency of monitoring their children, family obligations, individualism and collectivism, conformity, and impacts of the pandemic on their families. Results indicate that adolescents living in lower-middle-income countries had the highest level of future orientation at age ten, which declined as they aged. Adolescents from high- and upper-middle-income countries had low levels of future orientation, which remained stable through adolescence. Parental influences on adolescents’ development of future planning varied in different cultural contexts, and family obligations and conformity values were most linked to adolescents having increased future orientation. The research highlights how initiatives to improve future orientation should be designed to take into account adolescents’ culture and family influences.

The Washington Post: Australia is Banning Social Media for Teens. Others Could Follow
Australia is the first country to delay social media access for children under the age of 16. Social media platforms, rather than parents, are required to prevent teens from accessing their accounts. These new measures are in reaction to an increasing global concern about social media’s impact on children’s mental health and safety. Australia’s approach has sparked interest in other countries to adopt similar models. In the Netherlands, parents are advised to prohibit their children from accessing social media before 15. The European Commission is creating an age verification mobile app to check if users are over 18, which will likely be employed in several countries. Critics of the policy are concerned that adult users may be impacted by the age verification law, which could affect their privacy and cause an increase in data breaches. UNICEF Australia shared that these changes will not solve the real problem of social media and its negative impact on children. 

AP News: What to Know About the Administration’s Plan to Withhold States’ Money to Manage SNAP Food Aid
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will start withholding money from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from states that refuse to provide data to the federal government on their participants. The program helps one in eight Americans buy groceries. Twenty-two states have sued to block the request as they believe that sharing recipient information is a privacy issue. However, data already released from states has yielded issues of fraud, including 186,000 deceased people receiving benefits and 500,000 recipients receiving benefits in more than one place. Some states have taken measures to offset federal funding, though experts warn that shifting the cost of SNAP to the states will cause some to have to drop the program entirely. The USDA will alert states that they are not in compliance with providing recipient information, and they will have the opportunity to appeal. 

The Washington Post: Students in Need Were Paid $500 a Month to Stay in School. It Worked.
New Mexico recently launched a pilot program to offer $500 to teens each month who are experiencing housing insecurity. The initiative provides funding for students to afford resources that could be a barrier to attending school, such as transportation, clothing, and food. In order to receive the funding, students must maintain a 92% attendance rate, complete all schoolwork, and meet weekly with a counselor. They do not have to report how they spend the funds, but are required to receive financial advising. The program was created in 2020 by New Mexico Appleseed, a child poverty nonprofit. The previous year, only 51% of the state’s homeless students graduated, but in the test cohort, 93% did. New Mexico has one of the highest child poverty rates and about 10,000 homeless students. State leaders aim to replicate the model with a three-year pilot program in a dozen districts. 

The Hechinger Report: One State Made Preschool Free. Then Dozens of Child Care Centers Closed in Its Largest City
This school year, California implemented its transitional kindergarten program, which provided free preschool for all four-year-olds. The program’s goal was to address child care shortages and create preschool opportunities for children regardless of socioeconomic status. However, research found that wealthy families were the most likely to apply for the preschool seats, and 150 child care centers closed as a result of the new policy. The research suggests that this may be a consequence of families taking the new public school seats, which left community child care centers and private preschools under-enrolled and with lost revenue. It is more difficult for early childhood centers to shift to serve younger children, as there are different regulations for the spaces, and they are more costly to care for. To improve the state’s initiatives, experts believe that community child care centers should be included in the expansion of publicly funded preschool programs, rather than just public schools. 

WHYY: At Washington Avenue Elementary, Students and Educators Lean on the Arts to Build Critical Life Skills 
Students at Washington Avenue Elementary in Pleasantville, New Jersey, are participating in an art education program led by Young Audiences for Learning. The initiative offers residencies, workshops, and partnerships for schools and reached over 400 schools and 260,000 students in the 2023-24 school year. Students learn through dance classes and art sessions, which are centered around identity, agency, and belonging. Research has found that arts education improves children’s social-emotional development, chronic absenteeism rates, and academic skills. According to the Arts Education Data Project, two million students lack access to any arts education, with the majority of children from low-income families or in very rural or urban areas. One art teacher shared about the impact of the program on her students, “You don’t know which of your students are bringing in a heavy load. The arts are just one way to help relieve some of that, help work on some of that trauma… if you’re only worried about test scores, you’re not going to get the results you want if you’re not teaching the whole child.” Cynthia Ruiz-Cooper, principal at Washington Avenue Elementary, added that “Engaging in the arts strengthens creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It also promotes collaboration, self-expression and confidence. Experiences with music, visual arts and performance help build connections in the brain that enhance learning across all subject areas.”