Schools often mandate projects and assignments over the summer to keep students refreshed with content and make sure they are productive. These projects are typically teacher-designed and are a reminder of what was learned the year before. These projects should be teacher-designed in order to keep the focus of the projects in line with the material learned in class, make sure every student does the same amount of work, and keep grading standardized.

Currently, the only classes that I have summer assignments for are AP classes and they are all teacher assigned and are an introduction to the first unit in a class. Having a teacher-designed project allowed the class to discuss the projects and expand on it together. If the projects were student-designed, many students would have different topics and final products making it difficult to collaborate. One project I had was to read two books and analyze the language in both and compare. If everyone had seperate books or did different assignments, people would not learn from it. Additionaly, students do not know what exactly they will learn in a class they have not taken yet so there is no way of making sure their topic actually helps anything that they will learn in class the next year. There is no point of summer assignments if there is no assurance that the material has anything do with the class it is for and that time could be better spent being productive outside of school for many students.

Students are not incentivized to challenge themselves when they can do an easier project for a better grade. If everyone has a similar project, then the standards are higher meaning that students have to work for a good grade. The whole goal of the summer projects is to make sure students continue learning, but if they don't have to learn, most students will take advantage of it and focus projects on topics they are familiar with. Many students have other things to do in the summers such as visiting family, working to help their families, internships, and volunteering. Summer projects will not be a priority for many of these students if they can design their own projects because they will prioritize those other things because they can just pick an easy project. Having a difficult summer project does benefit students during the school year because they do not have to review the previous year for the first quarter. Teacher-assigned summer projects do a good job of connecting the ideas learned the previous years and introducing new topics and ideas while keeping the subjects in students' minds. Most classes with summer assignments are intended to be difficult and having a rigorous summer assignment can prepare a student for the expectations of the class and help them decide if they are a good fit for it.

In high school, for many students, the most important thing they want out of it is a good grade. Grades determine the quality of your future education through college, and starting a year poorly can cause struggles throughout the year. For many classes, summer projects are the first major grade in the year, and how well you do on it can make or break GPAs. If students are given the option to design their own summer projects, they will make it as easy as possible to ensure that they get the best grade possible. There is no way to standardize a grading scale or rubric with 25 or more different assignments. This is also more work for teachers because they have to go back and analyze the objective of each project and make sure each one meets the goals that the student described. While student-designed projects can help students pick what they are interested in learning about, it is difficult to ensure that the students' selections are productive and related to the class at all. The whole purpose of the summer assignment is to be completely done by the student and if teachers have to constantly check students' projects over the summer, that takes out any independent learning as teachers will critique work.

Teacher-designed projects ensure that learning is focused and students can keep up with the rigor of most classes. Students are not capable of picking their own projects because that creates a vast difference in the quality and focus of most projects with the focus of the class. The most effective solution to help both teachers and students is to allow teachers to design projects to keep it standardized and help students learn.