Groundbreaking Study Confirms BE

Groundbreaking Study Confirms BELL Summer program Increases Children's Reading Skills

Urban Institute study of BELL Summer validates need to invest in summer learning.

BOSTON/NEW YORK: Researchers from the Urban Institute and Mathematica Policy Research completed a rigorous evaluation of the BELL Summer Program and its impact on children's academic achievements and parental involvement. In comparing the academic achievements of children enrolled in BELL Summer program sites in Boston and New York City against a control group not enrolled in the program, researchers concluded:

The study 'provides scientifically rigorous evidence regarding the ability of the BELL Summer program to improve the reading skills of low-performing elementary school children.'
The study 'found evidence of positive impacts on the degree to which parents encouraged their children to read' and the degree to which they read with their children.
'The results are of particular importance given the long-standing public policy focus on raising achievement levels of low-income students.'

"The Urban Institute's evaluation of BELL Summer demonstrates the power of structured learning opportunities offered to children in the summer," said BELL CEO Earl Martin Phalen. "Summer is an incredible opportunity to help children who are underperforming in school achieve grade-level proficiency, develop as young leaders, and enter school ready to excel in the fall."

The BELL Summer Program provides children with a safe, fun and supportive learning environment while engaging them in rigorous academic instruction in literacy and math and a diverse array of social enrichment activities, such as art, music, and drama. Certified teachers implement skills-based curricula and technology-based assessment tools from Houghton Mifflin. Co. Children enrolled in BELL Summer, demonstrate significant gains in academic skills, while children not engaged in structured summer programs tend to lose two to three months' academic skills. This 'summer learning loss' is a primary cause of chronic academic under-performance in school, and increases the risk of children becoming involved in crime, gang violence, and other negative outcomes.

According to Duncan Chaplin and Jeffrey Capizzano, the report's authors, "Programs that work are hard to find. Our results suggest that the BELL program has positive and substantively important impacts."

"This report strengthens BELL's conviction that the BELL Summer program must be made available to thousands of additional children who are having difficulty fulfilling their tremendous potential," explains Phalen.

BELL is educating 1,350 children at six BELL Summer program sites in Boston, New York City, and Baltimore. The program is supported by several corporations and foundations, including Bank of America, the Charles Hayden Foundation, Comcast, Fidelity Investments, Jane's Trust, Liberty Mutual, the Open Society Institute, the Picower Foundation, Reebok, the Robin Hood Foundation, the Starr Foundation, and the Yawkey Foundation.

For more information, please contact Lester Strong at (617) 740-0431, or lstrong@bellnational.org.

About BELL: BELL is a national non-profit organization with a mission to dramatically increase the academic achievements, self-esteem and life opportunities of children living in low-income urban communities. Headquartered in Dorchester, BELL provides educational after school and summer programs to 8,000 children annually. BELL began as a community service project by a group of Harvard Law School students, led by CEO and Co-Founder Earl Martin Phalen.

BELL programs are nationally recognized for their positive impact on children's academic and social achievements. Most recently, Fast Company magazine and the Monitor Group recognized BELL as "one of the top 25 organizations changing the world." The Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University named BELL Summer the nation's best educational summer program for children with its 2006 Excellence in Summer Learning Award. Policy makers such as Senators Barack Obama (D-IL), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) have also recently recognized BELL programs as models of excellence. Learn more at www.bellnational.org.

About the Evaluator: The independent evaluation of the BELL Summer program was conducted by Duncan Chaplin, Senior Researcher, Mathematica Policy Research, and Jeffrey Capizzano, Director of Public Policy and Research of Teaching Strategies, Inc. The Urban Institute is an independent, non-partisan economic and social policy research organization. It analyzes policies, evaluates programs, and informs community development to improve social, civic, and economic well-being. The Urban Institute works in all 50 states and abroad in over 28 countries, and shares research findings with policymakers, program administrators, business, academics, and the public online and through reports and scholarly books.

The evaluation was funded by the Smith Richardson Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation.

To view the full evaluation report, titled Impacts of a Summer Learning Program: A Random Assignment Study of Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL), please visit http://www.urban.org/publications/411350.html.

About Summer Learning: Many researchers believe that a lack of high-quality educational opportunities available to children during the summer is one of the most significant contributors to persistent trends of academic under-achievement, dropping out of school, and engaging in a range of negative behaviors among children from low-income families. Data demonstrates that while all children learn at the same rate during the school year, children from low-income families lose the equivalent of two months' literacy skills and two months' math skills during the summer. At the same time, children from more affluent families actually gain skills from the opportunities that are available and encouraged for them. In sum, summer learning loss adds three and a half months to the academic achievement gap each year. Compounded annually, these summer losses are a major reason why the academic gap between low- and high-income children grows throughout the elementary school years, increasing from 65% in first grade to 96% in third grade. In the long-term, chronic academic under-performance during children's elementary school years is correlated to increased gang involvement, crime, drug abuse, and teenage pregnancy. The phenomenon known as "Summer Learning Loss" has been confirmed by at least 40 studies.