Effects of a Summer Reading Intervention on Reading Skills for Low-Income Black and Hispanic Students in Elementary School

ABSTRACT

We evaluated the effects of a summer reading intervention with a sample of low-income Black and Hispanic students who were struggling readers. In the summer before their 2nd- or 3rd-grade school year, 14 rising 2nd graders and 18 rising 3rd graders received 15 hr of a scripted, explicit phonics-based program in dyads from credentialed elementary school teachers. Students completed pre- and posttest measures of decoding, sight word reading, and reading fluency. Results indicated significant growth on most reading measures for rising 3rd graders. The school district also provided reading fluency and composite measures of reading for the intervention students and for a comparison sample of students who did not receive the intervention. There were few significant effects of the intervention between groups, but effect sizes on composite scores were meaningful and favored the intervention group. We discuss implications for providing summer reading support to students similar to the sample.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by the ReEmprise Foundation.