A Summer Reading Program And Its Impact On Summer Reading Loss

Abstract

The Problem: This study was designed to evaluate a summer reading program to determine if it had impact on preventing summer reading loss for students entering second grade. Procedure: The methodological approach for this proposed study was a descriptive study using Basic Reading Inventory (BRI) test score data and percentages to compare spring and fall test results. Results from the fall BRI testing for reading fluency rate, accuracy, and comprehension were measured for those students who attended the 2009 and 2010 summer school sessions and for those students who did not attend. In addition, fluency rate, accuracy, and comprehension for gender, ethnicity, and economic status were examined. At the conclusion of first grade, all students attending a Title I elementary school in the Ottumwa School District took the spring BRI for first grade. This data provided the baseline data for the study. The same group of students took the spring BRI for first grade when they entered second grade in September for comparison. Four hundred twenty-eight students were tested during the two year study identifying 280 as eligible. There were 124 eligible students who participated in summer school and 156 eligible students who did not participate in summer school. Findings: The results of the study support the district summer school initiative and belief that by shortening the summer break and providing skilled reading instruction, summer reading regression can be minimized. The percent of participating students who increased or maintained fluency rate, accuracy, and comprehension ranged from 70%-77% compared to 46%-67% for non-participating students. The data analysis of all participating students showed minimal differences of success in maintaining or increasing reading skills between gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. However, the study did find discrepancy in maintaining or increasing fluency rate success between Caucasian and non-Caucasian students, following the summer reading intervention. Eighty percent of Caucasian students maintained or increased fluency rates as compared to 59% of non-Caucasian students.