Elementary School Summer Program. Title 1 Final Evaluation Report.

This study examined the effectiveness of the Title 1 Elementary School Summer program that provided intervention to underachieving kindergarten through grade 5 pupils who were below average in reading ability at 7 schools located throughout the Columbus, Ohio public school district. The program featured group instruction (with many of the activities modeled after the Reading Recovery program) for 3.25 hours daily over a period of 22 days of instruction. The program also featured a parent component. Of the 785 pupils served, 649 (82.7%) met the attendance criterion for inclusion in the treatment group. Results indicated that: (1) 80.6% of the pupils in the treatment group read a minimum of 8 books; (2) 73% of the treatment group of pupils displayed all 3 strategic processing behaviors desired (constructing meaning, monitoring reading, integrating sources of information) at least once during the instructional period; (3) the 649 treatment group pupils (82.7% of all pupils served) represented 90.1% (707) of the total number of different parents or guardians involved in the program and 93.8% (2,702) of the total contacts made (2,881). Findings suggest that inservice sessions for parents should continue, similar parent inservices should be considered for the regular school year, and program developers should focus on developing the observational and instructional skills of the teachers involved rather than increasing the number of pupils served. (Contains four figures of data.) (RS)