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Executive Summary
A growing body of evidence indicates that the test scores of low-income children drop significantly relative to their higher-income counterparts during the summer months. This study
finds that a well-implemented summer learning program can improve reading skills and increase
the extent to which parents encourage their children to read during the subsequent school year.
These findings provide some support for investments in out-of-school time programming for
low-income children during the summer, such as those currently coming from the 21st Century
Community Learning Centers program and the Supplemental Services provisions of Title I of the
No Child Left Behind Act.
This study used random assignment, the gold standard of evaluation methods, to evaluate
the effectiveness of the Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL) program—a summer
program designed to improve academic skills, parental involvement, academic self-perceptions,
and social behaviors among low- income children and families. Over 1,000 elementary school
children who applied to BELL summer programs in New York and Boston in 2005 were
randomly chosen to be in either a treatment group that was selected to participate in the BELL
summer program, or a comparison group that was not. Independent researchers collected student
reading tests (Gates-MacGinitie) and student and teacher surveys.
The study found that children in the BELL treatment group gained about a month's worth
of reading skills more than their counterparts in the comparison group during the summer. This is
a modest, yet notable increase in reading skills for a six-week program. The study also found
evidence of positive impacts on the degree to which parents encouraged their children to read.
No impacts were found on academic-self perceptions or social behaviors.
Overall, this study provides scientifically rigorous evidence regarding the ability of the
BELL summer program to improve the reading skills of low-performing elementary school
children. Few out-of-school time programs have produced evidence of effectiveness when
evaluated in such a rigorous manner. The results are of particular importance given the longstanding public policy focus on raising achievement levels of low- income students.
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Disclaimer: The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.
