Linking Incongruent Data Sources: A Case Study of a Summer Library Program

Introduction A wealth of empirical evidence demonstrates that the educational achievement gap is exacerbated by economic inequality. Compared with children from advantaged backgrounds, children from low-income families are less likely to score as proficient on school reading assessments,1 graduate from high school,2 and attend college (Goldrick-Rab & Pfeffer, 2009; Bailey & Dynarski, 2011).3 Although there are many underlying causes of income-based disparities, low-income children are more vulnerable to summer learning loss than their wealthier peers.4