Addressing Summer Reading Setback Among Economically Disadvantaged Elementary Students

Abstract

Much research has established the contribution of summer reading setback to the reading achievement gap that is present between children from more and less economically advantaged families. Likewise, summer reading activity, or the lack of it, has been linked to summer setback. Finally, family socioeconomic status has been linked to the access children have to books in their homes and neighborhoods. Thus, in this longitudinal experimental study we tested the hypothesis that providing elementary school students from low-income families with a supply of self-selected trade books would ameliorate summer reading setback. Thus, 852 students from 17 high-poverty schools were randomly selected to receive a supply of self-selected trade books on the final day of school over a 3-year period, and 478 randomly selected students from these same schools received no books and served as the control group. No further effort was provided in this intervention study. Outcomes on the state reading assessment indicated a statistically significant effect (p = .015) for providing access to books for summer reading along with a significant (d = .14) effect size. Slightly larger effects (d = .21) were found when comparing the achievement of the most economically disadvantaged students in the treatment and control groups.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grant # R305T010692-02 from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. The two senior authors were coprincipal investigators for this longitudinal experimental study. The views expressed in this report reflect those of the authors.

Notes

1. Because this study was designed to experimentally test the impact of providing self-selected trade books, our design necessarily compared the impact of distributing self-selected books to some students and not others. We understood, as did the funding agency, our university Institutional Review Board, and the school districts’ personnel, that our design seemed to advantage students in the treatment group.

2. Our original design included an analysis based upon more assessment data but both school districts shifted their testing schemes dramatically as a result of demands by the state education agency during the implementation of the No Child Left Behind legislation. Rather than report the subskills assessment data that replaced reading assessment data, we turned to using the state reading assessment (Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test) administered beginning in Grade 3 because that remained the only constant reading assessment used in both districts.