Resource: Bridging the Gap
A State Leader’s Guide to Implementing Summer Bridge Programs
Every year, more than one million students graduate from high school but do not matriculate to postsecondary education. One in five graduates who have earned admission to college and intend to matriculate never show up on campus, a phenomenon known as “summer melt.”
One intervention that has emerged across colleges and universities to address summer melt and boost matriculation is a summer bridge program. These initiatives provide a throughline of academic, peer, and navigational support during the summer months to ensure students successfully enroll in the fall. Bridging the Gap: A State Leader’s Guide to Implementing Summer Bridge Programs provides insights and examples for state leaders interested in designing and scaling summer bridge programming to improve students’ access and success.
