The American Camp Association has tools and surveys for measuring outcomes from camp activities and similar programs.

Researchers analyzing Chicago's remedial education programs found that summer school substantially increased academic achievement among third graders, but not sixth graders. Also, contrary to conventional wisdom and prior research, grade retention increased achievement for third grade students, but had little effect on math achievement for sixth grade students.

Practice prevention and safety. Teach your child safety tips, including always swimming with a buddy, and wearing a bicycle helmet. Teach your child about sun safety, including wearing a hat outdoors and frequently applying SPF 30 sunscreen. Also, a growing child will come into potentially dangerous situations or may become separated from a parent or caregiver. Be sure your older toddler knows his or her name, parents' names, and phone number. Help him or her to recognize police and fire officials as trusted individuals, while raising caution to other strangers. Get your child's fingerprints taken and keep a recent photograph in your wallet.

The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools has pulled together some Safety tips on summer activities including resources on biking, hiking, and swimming, information on sun screen, and much more.

MindOH! offers free advice on ways to encourage students to get involved in their communities suring the summer.

Summertime. For many, it’s a season of carefree memories colliding with stressful, expensive realities, as busy parents try to figure out how to keep the kids busy, safe and entertained. Linda Baker looks at the challenges, especially for low- and moderate-income families.

Some 274,000 jobs were created in April 2005, substantially more than experts had predicted. Still, younger workers are struggling amidst less-than-encouraging employment rates. A March 2005 report from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University found that the teenage employment rate in the first 11 months of 2004—just 36.3 percent—was the lowest it has ever been since the federal government began tracking teenage employment in 1948. Young people ages 20-24 didn't fare a whole lot better, either.

Librarians and teens do have something in common: both are saddled with persistent public images impervious to reality. But the images are poles apart. Can the prim, silence-enforcing Librarian reach out to—and learn from—the reckless, noisy, Teen? Connect for Kids Editor Susan Phillips interviewed Deborah Taylor of Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Library about the library’s expanding commitment to youth development.

The summer job - it's the original, tried-and-true school-to-work program. Teen D'Nashia Jenkins recounts her job-hunting experience so far this summer, and tells what she's discovered about finding, getting and keeping a job. This story is reprinted from the June 2004 issue of New Youth Connections, a publication of Youth Communications.