A Pilot Study of a Kindergarten Summer School Reading Program in High-Poverty Urban Schools

This pilot study examined an implementation of a kindergarten summer school reading program in 4 high-poverty urban schools. The program targeted both basic reading skills and oral language development. Students were randomly assigned to a treatment group (n = 25) or a typical practice comparison group (n = 28) within each school; however, randomization was compromised due to school circumstances, resulting in a quasi-experimental design. Instruction was delivered by the schools' regular teachers during 20 full-day summer school sessions. Each day treatment group students received large-group listening comprehension and vocabulary lessons anchored in storybook reading, along with small-group lessons focused on basic reading skills and listening comprehension. The intervention was associated with improved outcomes for treatment group students in word reading and listening comprehension with mixed results for phonemic awareness and no significant between-group differences in reading fluency or vocabulary. Such an approach is potentially efficacious, suggesting the need for further research.