Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This paper reports on a summer literacy intervention implemented with elementary school students in a large, urban district in Virginia. Following a pilot rollout in summer 2016, the district randomly assigned 250 students and families from seven schools during summer 2017 to receive either access to a digital library or access to the library plus motivational and instructional videos focusing on increasing reading quantity, engagement, and enjoyment. The schools in our sample are all part of the district Title I program, where 46% of students are Hispanic, about 17% are Black, and 63% classify as economically disadvantaged.

The motivation for launching this intervention came from district-specific and national data on summer learning loss or “summer slide.” Researchers have found that socioeconomic gaps in students’ academic performance widen over the summer, particularly in literacy and reading development (Atteberry & McEachin, 2015; Alexander, Entwisle, & Olson, 2007; Downey et al., 2004). Researchers argue these observed differences in reading development are associated with variation in access to out-of-school educational enrichment activities over the summer months (Cooper et al., 1996). This has motivated a range of interventions, from providing students with books over the summer to more resource-intensive summer school and outreach programs (Allington et al, 2010; Kim & Guryan, 2010). Evaluations of these programs show that summer reading programs are more effective when provider pair book provision with an instructional component (Kim & White, 2008; Kim & White, 2011).

This intervention directly tests the hypothesis that instructional and/or motivational scaffolding enhances students’ reading development over the summer months beyond book provision. Half of the students will meet with their school reading coordinator to select books for summer reading and then receive a district tablet with those eBooks preloaded. Half of students will go through the same process, but will also receive biweekly video and text messages through the district classroom application on the iPad that encourage students to read. For example, students might receive a video from the school gym teacher talking about her favorite place to read the same week that they receive a video from the school reading coordinator offering advice about what makes for an optimal reading environment (e.g., quiet, comfortable, away from distractions). We will report on students’ text engagement (measured through the eBook app, tracking number of books read and reading speed) as well as student and parent surveys of reading enjoyment and district literacy assessments administered in early fall 2017.

In additional to contributing to the research body on summer slide and reading, this intervention also evaluates the effectiveness of digital communication and direct communication with students. Prior interventions have shown that parents are responsive to literacy-oriented outreach about their preschool-aged student’s development and that high school aged students respond to direct outreach about important college prep tasks (Castleman & Page, 2014; Mayer, Kalil, Oreopoulos, & Gallegos, 2015; York & Loeb, 2014). This intervention evaluates the extent to which elementary aged students respond to outreach to change their reading behaviors and tablet effectiveness as a communications device.