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| A growing body of evidence indicates that the test scores of low-income children drop significantly relative to their higher-income counterparts during the summer months. This Urban Institute evaluation on the nationally recognized summer enrichment program operated by BELL -- a nonprofit provider of after-school and summer programs to 8,000 low-income students in Boston, New York, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.—found that the program increases students’ reading skills and their parents’ involvement in their education. The study used a random assignment method to evaluate the effectiveness of the summer program, which is designed to improve students’ academic skills, parental involvement, academic self-perceptions and social behaviors among low-income children and families. It found that a well-implemented summer learning program can improve reading test scores and increase the extent to which parents encourage their children to read during the subsequent school year. The authors conclude these findings provide support for investments in out-of-school time programming for low-income children during the summer. | |||||||