America Reads - Mississippi: An impact evaluation of the program's 2015-16 school year

America Reads – Mississippi (ARM) is an AmeriCorps national service program that aims to help improve the reading skills of students, encourage public awareness and support of literacy, and increase the number of certified teachers in Mississippi. ARM AmeriCorps members provide one-on-one and small-group tutoring in reading to students from kindergarten to 3rd-grade during school and extended-day/year programs.

Study Goals:

The goal of the study is to further investigate the impact ARM AmeriCorps members have on kindergarten to 3rd-grade elementary students they are tutoring in one-on-one and small-group settings across the state of Mississippi.

Research Questions:

The research questions were:

1. What was ARM’s impact on improving student academic gains in reading during the 2015-2016 school year?
2. What was the impact of the same program on student attitudes towards academic and recreational reading?

Findings:

The study found the following:

• The program did not generate positive significant effects for student achievement across a number of different studies.
• There was variable implementation fidelity across locations and even within locations among individual members.

For more information, download the full report.