• Families overwhelmingly found the MSC program to be valuable. 5 • 99% agreed that the program contributed to their children reading more books over the summer. • 98% agreed that their children were better readers after the summer. • 100% found Family Reading Nights to be valuable for learning about how to support their children’s reading. Next Steps The exploratory findings in this Executive Summary are in line with research showing the importance of providing access to books to help address summer reading loss. 6 Together, PEP and Scholastic will continue to explore the relationship between access to books and increased family engagement, and summer reading loss in elementary students. Specifically, for summer 2017: • PEP will: • continue their book selection activities and refine these processes by ensuring that books are even more well-suited to students’ interests and reading levels by utilizing self-selection of books; and • continue to provide opportunities to engage families by hosting Family Reading Nights, using these events to provide families with tools to have meaningful conversations about books. • Scholastic will: • continue to partner with PEP to provide students and families the books and resources they need to read all summer long; • continue its work with PEP this upcoming summer by gathering more specific and longitudinal student data to determine the impacts of MSC; and • expand summer reading initiative research to other districts in the country and include a comparison group this summer.
5 Based on parents who responded to the post-survey (n=101). 6 Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (2003). The early catastrophe: The 30 million word gap by age 3. American Educator, 27(1 ), 4-9; Heyns, B. (1978). Summer learning and the effects of schooling. New York, NY: Academic; Neuman, S. B., & Celano, D. (2006). The knowledge gap: Implications of leveling the playing field for low-income and middle-in- come children. Reading Research Quarterly, 41(2 ), 176-201.
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