Supporting Literacy in Out-of-School Time: Summary of Evidence

The City of Philadelphia’s Citywide Out‐of‐School‐Time (OST) Initiative was launched in February 2017 in order to better coordinate and focus the capacities of OST programs on the needs of the city’s children. The first phase of this initiative calls on OST programs to address the literacy needs of students in grades K‐3. As a part of this initiative, the City of Philadelphia engaged Research for Action (RFA) to review existing research on literacy programs applicable to OST in an effort to ensure that children read on grade level by the end of third grade.

 

RFA reviewed 87 articles, including literature reviews, meta‐analyses, and single studies. RFA rated the evidence base for particular literacy programs as strong, moderate, or needing more research, based on the rigor of the studies evaluating them. Results are summarized in the attached study.