Tackle Summer Slide Program Results Show Over Half of Students Gained Two Months’ Reading Ability

Nationally, low-income students experience an average summer learning loss in reading achievement of more than two months every year. This summer, Istation initiated its 3rd annual Tackle Summer Slide program. The program is an effort to reverse summer reading loss by providing children with access to online curriculum, instruction from trained reading specialists, and learning incentives. Istation is an interactive computer-delivered program that provides every student with the individualized instruction she or he needs for continual success. Educators and parents can access online reports that track student progress and provide links to supplemental lessons.

The collaborative effort between Dallas ISD, Dallas Afterschool, IStation, Dallas City of Learning, and The Commit! Partnership included 411 kindergarten through 3rd grade Dallas ISD students at eight community sites across the city. More than 30 literacy specialists worked with these students to prevent the trend of low-income students losing two months of reading achievement every summer.

The results have been incredible. 72% of the students experienced no summer slide at all (up 8% from last summer), and 53% of students increased their literacy by two months. This significantly exceeds results from last year. Additionally, costs were cut in half this year by leveraging existing resources, such as sharing literacy specialists across sites.

For the Tackle Summer Slide program’s fourth year, the involved organizations have already begun putting more supports and resources in place to hopefully help even more students overcome summer reading loss in 2018.