Avoiding the Summer Slide: Tier One and Two Supports Targeting Early Readers

For more than 100 years, the “summer slide,” or the learning losses by students following a long summer break have been well documented. On average, a typical student loses a little more than one month’s worth of skill across each academic area (e.g., language arts and mathematics) throughout the summer months. Research has also demonstrated that the “summer slide” has a particularly harmful impact on reading achievement of students from low-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of a tiered system of support for oral reading fluency in early elementary school aged students a summer day camp program to mitigate some of the academic loss that typically occurs. All students attending the summer day camp completed a survey-level assessment (SLA) process using AIMSweb materials to determine their instructional level with reading. Following the assessment, students were placed in tiered groups where they received intervention up to three times a week for 30 minutes and were progressed monitored weekly. Results were mixed across participants; however, nine of the 11 participants made gains by the end of the summer, and four of 11 participants performed above the predicted summer slide for the grade level they had completed in the spring. Limitations and future directions for research are also discussed for furthering supports in this area.