The potential for multi-site literacy interventions to reduce summer slide among low-performing students

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.104806Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Short-duration, high-intensity tutoring may help to prevent summer learning loss.

  • Students kept pace with the national rate of improvement on DIBELS.

  • Only 20% of students experienced loss in reading skills over the summer.

  • Embedding literacy in existing programs may prevent loss across a system.

Abstract

Despite the evidence that summer learning loss or “slide” can have devastating cumulative effects on student performance in school, there are few examples of system-wide interventions that can prevent summer learning loss at scale in urban contexts with high rates of low-performing students. This study reports on the first year of a city-wide effort to reduce summer literacy loss in Detroit, Michigan, through a multi-site collaboration between the city Parks and Recreation Department, the local public school district, and several unique program providers. Results from this pilot study suggest that short-duration, high-intensity tutoring may help to prevent learning loss in literacy among a population with high rates of socio-economic disadvantage and low initial performance, regardless of specific program methodologies. This study has implications for other large cities seeking to prevent summer slide by building on existing municipal and district infrastructure.

Introduction

An estimated 75 percent of students are not engaged in formal learning experiences in the summer, contributing to lower academic performance once they are back in school (After, 2010). Summer learning loss, or summer slide, impacts students in several areas. First, students perform poorer on standardized tests at the beginning of a new school year than they do at the end of the previous school year (Quinn & Polikoff, 2017). Second, students and teachers must spend at least three weeks at the beginning of a new school year to re-learn skills that were taught and acquired the previous year (Summer by the Numbers, 2019). Lastly, summer slide accumulates over time and affects students’ overall proficiency in critical areas like reading and math in later grades, particularly among low-achieving students (Cooper et al., 1996, Quinn and Polikoff, 2017). Despite the clear evidence that summer learning loss can have devastating effects on student performance in school, there are few examples of system-wide interventions that can prevent summer learning loss at scale. This study reports on the first year of a city-wide effort to reduce summer learning loss in Detroit, Michigan. Evidence suggests that short-duration, high-intensity tutoring can prevent learning loss in literacy among a population with high rates of socio-economic disadvantage and low initial performance.

Section snippets

Literature review

Reading is a fundamental skill that is part of everyday life, from reading street signs to functioning successfully in school at all levels. Therefore, it is imperative that students gain strong early literacy skills that they can build on in later grades. Summer literacy loss is a consistent concern for educators, particularly for students with few reading opportunities outside of school. Policymakers are increasingly interested in evidence-based reforms to narrow persistent reading

Participants

Participants were first grade through fifth grade students who were enrolled in a summer literacy program in Detroit, Michigan. Of the 420 students who were enrolled in the literacy programs, 86% of parents consented to allow their children to participate in the study and 47% had both pre- and post-intervention data to analyze. Among our sample of 231 students, 44.6% were male, 53.7% were female and, 4 were not identified; 98% were Black/African American. We did not have complete records on

Did summer learning loss occur overall?

Summer learning loss was examined as an overarching construct where performance for all students with pre- and post-intervention data were compared on one or more of the following tests: LNF, PSF, NWFCLS, or ORF. Each student was compared to their own performance between pre- and post-intervention. Loss was defined in this study as having scored at post-intervention time anything less than the same score earned at pre-intervention. Descriptive statistics were selected as most appropriate to

Discussion

The major purpose of this study was to determine if summer learning loss could be prevented through a unique approach to literacy intervention in primarily low-income youth in an urban context. Of particular interest was whether there were differences between the four providers, or if learning loss could be equally prevented with intervention exposure regardless of specific intervention method. The ultimate goal was to test a model for summer intervention that has flexibility for providers to

Conclusions

Many organizations are implementing summer enrichment activities for students in urban contexts like Detroit, and clearly there are logistical and coordination challenges of large-scale intervention implementation. Despite several potential methodological limitations, however, our findings suggest that incorporating literacy supports in those enrichment activities could prevent summer learning loss for low-income, low-performing students, helping to close persistent achievement gaps between

Funding

This work was funded through a grant from the Skillman Foundation.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Sarah Winchell Lenhoff: Conceptualization, Investigation, Data curation, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Cheryl Somers: Methodology, Resources, Writing - review & editing, Supervision. Brittney Tenelshof: Formal analysis, Writing - original draft. Trisha Bender: Formal analysis, Writing - original draft.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.

Dr. Sarah Winchell Lenhoff is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in the College of Education at Wayne State University. She conducts research into the development and implementation of policies and practices that seek to improve urban education, particularly related to school choice, absenteeism, and turnaround.

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  • Cited by (0)

    Dr. Sarah Winchell Lenhoff is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in the College of Education at Wayne State University. She conducts research into the development and implementation of policies and practices that seek to improve urban education, particularly related to school choice, absenteeism, and turnaround.

    Dr. Cheryl Somers is the Assistant Dean of Theoretical and Behavioral Foundations in the College of Education at Wayne State University. She is also a Professor in Educational Psychology. Her research is focused primarily on understanding the roles of parents, peers, media, and schools as predictors of successful adolescent outcomes.

    Brittney Tenelshof is a graduate of the Wayne State University school and community psychology master’s program.

    Trisha Bender is a graduate of the Wayne State University school and community psychology master’s program.

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