The benefits of summer reading on reading achievement scores

This is an addendum to an earlier post about improvements in reading achievement scores for elementary children who received free summer reading materials. The study has been reviewed by the WWC and found to meet evidence standards and to demonstrate significantly positive effects. "The study analyzed data on about 1,300 students from 17 high-poverty elementary schools in two large districts in Florida. Student-level reading achievement was measured by the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test, the state-mandated reading assessment. The study compared reading scores of students randomly assigned to receive summer reading books with those of students who did not receive them. Scores were compared at the end of the third summer, at which time most students were in 4th or 5th grade....The study found that students who received three consecutive years of free, self-selected summer reading books had statistically significantly higher reading test scores than students who did not receive summer reading books. The reported effect size of 0.14 is interpreted by the WWC as roughly equivalent to moving a student from the 50th percentile to the 56th percentile of reading achievement."

The Quick Review of this grant funded study is here: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/quickreviews/QRReport.aspx?QRId=158
The study was initially presented at 2007's AERA:
Allington, R. L., McGill-Franzen, A. M., Camilli, G., Williams, L., Graff, J., Zeig, J., et al. (2007). Ameliorating summer reading setback among economically disadvantaged elementary students. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, Chicago.
And is forthcoming in the journal, Reading Psychology.

Summer reading turns around summer slide

According to this article in Tennessee Today, "University of Tennessee, Knoxville, faculty members Richard Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen have completed a three-year study showing a significantly higher level of reading achievement in students who received books for summer reading at home...
According to the professors’ research, the summer reading setback is the primary reason for the reading achievement gap between children who have access to reading materials at home and those who do not. Students who do not have books at home miss out on opportunities to read...'What we know is that children who do not read in the summer lose two to three months of reading development while kids who do read tend to gain a month of reading proficiency,' Allington said. 'This creates a three to four month gap every year. Every two or three years the kids who don’t read in the summer fall a year behind the kids who do.'...The researchers’ study found that summer reading is just as effective, if not more so, as summer school. 'We found our intervention was less expensive and less extensive than either providing summer school or engaging in comprehensive school reform,' Allington said. ... 'Spending roughly $40 to $50 a year on free books for each child began to alleviate the achievement gap that occurs in the summer.'” This was a multi-year study, where students in first and second grade were allowed to choose the books they took home.