What does the state of educational opportunity look like in America?

This is the monumental question that 50CAN—the 50-State Campaign for Achievement Now, and Edge Research set out to answer by asking more than 20,000 parents questions about the quality of their child’s school, participation in out-of-school-time activities, knowledge about and engagement in their child’s school-day learning, and confidence in their child’s readiness for the future. 50CAN’s report, “The State of Educational Opportunity in America,” digs into what they refer to as the “broader ecosystem of learning opportunities,” which includes the learning that takes place both in and out of the classroom—such as afterschool and summer learning programs.

The report includes results for all 50 states and D.C., allowing readers to find out what educational opportunity looks like in their state and where their state falls compared to other states and to the national average overall. This feature is related to the report’s first big-picture takeaway:

• Educational opportunity looks different in every state. The report found that no two states held the same pattern of results in the five areas of educational opportunity examined.

Additionally, across a few national-level takeaways a through line emerged:

• Access to educational opportunities is inequitable. This includes low- and middle-income families facing more barriers than their higher income counterparts, students who receive primarily higher grades more likely to take part in out-of-school time activities, and rural students less likely than urban students to have a tutor and take part in afterschool and summer programs.

Related, another common theme found across a number of national takeaways is:

• A high level of unmet demand for educational opportunities, including afterschool programming. Survey results found that more than 4 in 10 parents whose child didn’t participate in an afterschool program, summer program, or tutoring in the past year wanted their child to have those experiences in the future (43%, 46%, and 46%, respectively). Unmet demand was higher among low-income families versus high-income families for afterschool (46% vs. 40%) and summer programming in particular (47% vs. 42%) and among families of color compared to white families. For example, more than half of Asian, Black, and Latino families without a child in an afterschool said that they were interested in their child attending a program in the future program (58%, 54%, and 53%, respectively), compared to 37% of white parents. 

The overall findings reinforce what America After 3PM found in 2020, specifically the high levels of unmet demand for afterschool and summer programming and differences in opportunity for young people in the U.S. While barriers, including cost and transportation, continue to stymie access to out-of-school time programs, a positive finding from 50CAN’s survey is that children who are able to take part in programming are having a quality experience. More than 9 in 10 parents said they are satisfied with the overall quality of their child’s afterschool (91%) and summer programs (93%).

In addition to the report, you can download data by state or question asked, as well as access the survey questionnaire and topline data.