Jennifer Sloan McCombs

Despite recent progress in reading achievement among primary-grade children, many are not moving beyond basic decoding to fluency and comprehension as they go on to higher grades. RAND evaluated the impact of reading coaches: master teachers who offer ongoing on-site instructional support for teachers; and, on teaching practices and student outcomes in Florida middle schools. This title presents results from a RAND evaluation of the implementation and impact of the reading coach program in Florida middle schools.

Program providers and funders who decide how best to invest limited resources to meet goals for children and youth in the summer are increasingly encouraged by policymakers to base their decisions on research evidence. This report, which provides a systematic review of the evidence supporting summer programs and descriptions of evidence-based programs, is intended to provide guidance regarding the effectiveness of summer interventions.

The Wallace Foundation s National Summer Learning Study, conducted by RAND and launched in 2011, offers the first assessment of district-run voluntary summer programs over the short and long run. This report, the second of five that will result from the study, looks at how summer programs affected student performance on math, reading, and social and emotional assessments in fall 2013."

RAND is conducting a longitudinal study that evaluates the effectiveness of voluntary summer learning programs in reducing summer learning loss, which contributes substantially to the achievement gap between low- and higher-income students. Based on evaluations of programs in six school districts, this second report in a series provides research-based advice for school district leaders as they create and strengthen summer programs.

The Wallace Foundation sponsored an initiative to help five cities increase collaboration, access, quality, information sharing, and sustainability in their out-of-school-time systems. The second in this three-volume series describes how Wallace Foundation grantees and three other cities used management information systems to collect and use data on out-of-school-time programs, including enrollment, attendance, and student outcomes.

The New York City Department of Education asked RAND to conduct an independent longitudinal evaluation of its 5th-grade promotion policy. The findings of that study, conducted between March 2006 and August 2009, provide a comprehensive view of the policy's implementation and its impact on student outcomes, particularly for students at risk of retention and those who were retained in grade.