data.ed.gov

"The proposed project will address Absolute Priority 2-Innovations that Improve the Use of Data. The applicant organization, Harvard University, will work with the Durham (NC) Public Schools (DPS), Communities in Schools of North Carolina (CIS), a non profit organization, and other partners to implement, validate, and scale up an innovative approach to combating summer loss among low-income children. The Project-called READS (Reading Enhances Achievement During Summer)-provides children with books during the summer and promotes summer reading with teacher and parent 'scaffolding.' In implementing READS, districts must adopt a set of data use strategies that inform decision-making and help to improve student achievement, such as examining spring to fall achievement gains or losses and using the results of student surveys and achievement tests to select books that are well matched to students' reading skills and interests.

The proposed project has three phases: Phase 1 Validation, which includes testing READS in several districts including DPS and an effort to increase the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the program; Phase 2 Validation, which involves expansion into more districts and many more schools and testing the cumulative impact of READS across summers; and Phase 3 Scale-Up, which involves expansion into 20 more districts. In Phase 1 Validation, an independent evaluator will a) conduct two experiments that test the effects of the READS program that was implemented previously and an enhanced version of it, and b) analyze the cost effectiveness of the basic and enhanced versions of READS to identify the most cost effective version. In Phase 2 Validation, the evaluator will a) conduct an experimental test of the cumulative effects (across 2 summers) of the most cost-effective version of READS (CE READS) in as many as 10 school districts, and b) compare achievement growth in the summer and school year for students who received CE R"

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