Learning from Summer: Online Technical Appendixes. RAND Summer Learning Series. Research Report. RR-1557-WF

• Published in: RAND Corporation
• Main Authors: Augustine, Catherine H, McCombs, Jennifer Sloan, Pane, John F, Schwartz, Heather L, Schweig, Jonathan, McEachin, Andrew, Siler-Evans, Kyle
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: RAND Corporation 2016
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Achievement Gap; Attendance; Educational Environment; Educational Objectives; Elementary School Students; Emotional Development; Low Income Students; Middle School Students; Program Effectiveness; Program Evaluation; Program Implementation; Social Development; Student Behavior; Student Characteristics; Student Participation; Summer Programs; Urban Education; Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh); New York (Rochester); Texas (Dallas); Massachusetts (Boston); Florida
• ISBN: 0833096605; 9780833096609
• DOI: 10.7249/RR1557

The National Summer Learning Project, launched by the Wallace Foundation in 2011, includes an assessment of the effectiveness of voluntary, district-led summer learning programs offered at no cost to low-income, urban elementary students. The study, conducted by RAND, uses a randomized controlled trial and other analytic methods to assess the effects of district-led programs on academic achievement, social-emotional competencies, and behavior over the near and long term. All students in the study were in the third grade as of spring 2013 and enrolled in a public school in one of five urban districts: Boston; Dallas; Duval County, Florida; Pittsburgh; or Rochester, New York. The study follows these students from third to seventh grade; this report describes outcomes through fifth grade. The primary focus is on academic outcomes but students' social-emotional outcomes are also examined, as well as behavior and attendance during the school year. Among the key findings are that students with high attendance in one summer benefited in mathematics and that these benefits persisted through the following spring; students with high attendance in the second summer benefited in mathematics and language arts and in terms of social-emotional outcomes; and that high levels of academic time on task led to benefits that persisted in both mathematics and language arts. This report contains the technical appendixes to the full report. These appendixes contain: (1) details of the randomization design (including treatment uptake, attrition, baseline equivalence of the treatment and control groups); (2) details of the data collection processes and protocols (including characteristics of the participating students, descriptions of outcome measures, and a description of the observation process and protocol); (3) a review of the extant literature on summer learning loss; (4) a description of the mediators and moderators included in analyses (including detailed information about how attendance and academic time on task were calculated); (5) analytic models used for estimating program effects; and (6) the complete results of all regression analyses. [For the full report "Learning from Summer: Effects of Voluntary Summer Learning Programs on Low-Income Urban Youth. RAND Summer Learning Series. Research Report. RR-1557-WF," see ED605457.]