Date of Award

January 2022

Degree Type

Open Access Dissertation

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

First Advisor

Stella Ann Burns

Department Affiliation

Teaching, Learning, and Educational Leadership

Second Advisor

Connie Hodge

Department Affiliation

Teaching, Learning, and Educational Leadership

Third Advisor

Raymond A. Lauk

Department Affiliation

Teaching, Learning, and Educational Leadership

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of a summer learning loss prevention program that is designed to improve the academic achievement gap. The target population for this research study was participants of the Power Scholars Academy (PSA) program. PSA is a collaboration of BellXcel, local school districts, and community organizations. BellXcel as the creator of the program, provided the curriculum for extended learning opportunities during out of school time. For this study, BellXcel partnered with the school district located in the second largest county in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The study analyzed 1,567 students who participated in the PSA program between 2017 and 2021. Participants came from low-income communities in Kentucky with many scoring in the low fortieth percentile on their Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) test. The aim of the study is to examine the impact that the PSA program has on the summer learning of students. Data used for the study was pre-existing and provided from BellXcel. The following dependent variables were evaluated in the study: (1) pretest scores, (2) post-test scores, and (3) the correlation of the summer test scores, and the demographics of the population will be examined. A causal-comparative research design was used for the study to seek to find the relationships between independent and dependent variables within this quantitative research study. Study findings concluded the PSA program had a positive impact on overall student achievement in both literacy with +1.05 - +3.7 months’’ growth and +1.5 - +5.88 months’’ growth in math. Therefore, this study provides insight into how summer learning programming can work to mitigate learning loss for students and close the achievement gap.

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