The National Summer School Initiative 2025
Leverage Summer. Equip and inspire teachers. Propel students forward.
We help your teachers deliver a five-week summer program that is uncommonly engaging and exceptionally effective.
Raise expectations for teaching and learning. Join us.
The results are in.
Rapid academic gains
In summer 2024, thousands of like-minded educators joined forces with NSSI to deliver extraordinary learning experiences across the nation. From its inaugural summer in 2020 with 12,000 students, NSSI’s impact has vastly expanded—now preparing 82,000 students to thrive in the 2024-25 school year.
Guided by NSSI’s expert mentors, 4,250 teachers and 715 school leaders sharpened their instructional skills and helped their students achieve meaningful academic gains.
Partnering for excellence
Meet our Mentor Teachers.
Your teachers work in close partnership with our award-winning Mentor Teachers in their grade and subject. Together they craft and deliver extraordinary learning experiences for your students.
Expect more
Build teacher capacity.
Welcome to an entirely new approach to improving instruction.
Our professional learning is directly tied to the content teachers will teach, making it uniquely relevant and impactful.
Participating teachers hone their craft guided by our expert Mentor Teachers in their particular grades and subjects. They learn their moves and make them their own. They start to expect more of their students. And their students, naturally, rise to the challenge.
Turnkey programming
"Best-designed summer program I have taught thus far."
For many partners, NSSI serves as an extension of their team. With high quality curriculum, best-in-class professional learning, and meticulous operational support, NSSI helps its partners to plan, launch, manage, and evaluate a rigorous summer academic program at scale.
Each year, this gets better and better. Thank you for all the time and effort you put into helping us launch and run successful summer programs with great opportunities for teacher growth and great student outcomes.
—Laurie Wolfe, Chief Academic Officer, Gem Prep
Program-wide, teachers and leaders appreciated NSSI’s ease-of-use. Respondents to our end-of-session surveys gave the statement “I am happy that I taught/led summer school in partnership with NSSI” an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 possible points.
Learn more about why partners choose NSSI to eliminate the complexity and capacity challenges of scaling high quality summer academic programming.
Hear from a returning partner
"We partner with NSSI because they are 'student first.'"
One of the key factors in deciding to partner another year with NSSI was the demonstrable impact of the program, with students making gains of 15–40% in priority grade level standards assessed through pre- and post-assessments. Moreover, students, families, and teachers continue to share with us their enthusiasm for the lessons, materials, and for the emphasis on social-emotional learning. We partner with NSSI because they are 'student first.'
Dr. Jeanne Willard, Ed.D., Executive Director of College & Career Readiness and Extended Learning Options, Everett Public Schools
A focus on equity
Our five-part organizational commitment to leading for racial equity includes:
Rigorous curriculum that tackles texts and ideas that are at or above grade-level
Leveraging students' voices and expertise through discourse and deep thinking
Intentional connection and relationship-building, led by a diverse mentor teacher team
Psychologically safe classrooms
A culturally responsive curriculum that foregrounds and celebrates authors of color and thinkers and elevates their voices and perspectives.
The curriculum both creates windows (to learn about other countries, people, cultures, and ideas) and mirrors (to affirm the beauty and brilliance of people who are similar to our students) that are vital for young people to grow and thrive.
As featured in national news publications
“It was not like a normal summer school at all.”
Harvard and University of Virginia scholars found that students in NSSI last summer improved their academic skills and gained confidence.
I honestly felt like all of my kids, they improved. Pretty much across the board they all said, I read differently now. And I pay attention to what I read. And I'm going to be thinking about what I read and what it means for my life.
—from a summer ELA partner teacher
Our partner network
Join district, charter, and independent schools partnering with us to offer a singular experience next summer.
National Summer School Initiative, Inc. 147 Prince Street, 3-54 Brooklyn, NY 11201
© National Summer School Initiative 2025