The effects of a summer reading program for migrant children in migrant schools: First-year results from a randomized experiment

Abstract

Thanks to urbanization, some developing countries have a large migrant population. Academic performance of migrant children is usually far from satisfactory, much to the concern of educators and legislators. Meanwhile, research has attested to the importance of reading skill development by the end of third grade for later academic achievement. Against this background, we evaluated the effects of providing self-selected, developmentally appropriate books on the reading performance and summer reading amount of students in migrant schools in China, employing a randomized controlled trial. The intervention program improved rising second-graders’ word reading scores and summer reading amount. It proved particularly beneficial to low-performing children and children from disadvantaged families. The findings have implications for improving the academic achievement of migrant children in migrant schools in China and similar developing countries, especially where parental support may not be expected for the academic development of children.