Summary of Supplemental Education Programming in Rural America: A Strategy for Closing Literacy Gaps Post COVID

In the years since March 2020, researchers, educators, and policymakers have put forth significant effort to understand the extent to which the pandemic impacted children’s learning trajectories, whether out-of-school-time programs that continued to provide services during school closures had a mitigating effect, and how participation in afterschool and summer programming has helped children recover from learning disruptions. This document summarizes the study drawing on data collected by Save the Children’s school-age programs focusing on the impact of that programming on elementary children’s literacy development between 2018-19 and 2022-23. The research team found consistently positive results in our evaluation of the effectiveness of Save the Children school-age programs across the pandemic-impacted and recovery school years.