[Portland, OR] – Despite significant investments in classroom interventions, students nationwide face a persistent literacy gap. The 2024 results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that students’ reading proficiency scores have made no meaningful change since the first assessment was administered more than 30 years ago.

We’re grateful to the Overdeck Family Foundation for funding this important research to help address the literacy crisis in K–12 education

One creative approach to close the literacy gap is to go beyond the classroom and close the gap between home and school literacy support.

The Springboard Collaborative after-school family engagement literacy model aims to accelerate literacy growth for students in grades K–3 by building family-school partnerships around the science of reading. Springboard trains teachers on best practices in literacy instruction and family engagement. Teachers then use Springboard’s methods to deliver targeted, evidence-based reading instruction to students and build relationships with families to support their use of literacy strategies at home.

In April, Education Northwest received a two-year $1.25 million grant from the Overdeck Family Foundation to study the impact of the Springboard Collaborative model. The research will estimate the after-school model’s impact on students’ literacy skills and attendance as well as self-efficacy among teachers and families.

“We’re grateful to the Overdeck Family Foundation for funding this important research to help address the literacy crisis in K–12 education,” said Dr. Sarah Asson, Education Northwest project lead. “Our study will provide critical evidence on the impact of this unique intervention at a time when schools and families across the country are working hard to support their students’ foundational literacy skills.”

Education Northwest will conduct a randomized controlled trial to estimate the model’s impact on student reading achievement and attendance, with attention to whether outcomes vary by student characteristics such as grade, race, gender, or family income. In addition, the study will explore whether the model influences the self-efficacy of teachers and families. It will also collect feedback from teachers to understand how the program is implemented and what factors help or hinder implementation.

“Both schools and families play essential roles in learning, and we expect that the study we’re designing with Education Northwest will prove the power of our unique approach to bridge the gap between home and school,” said Dr. Jodut Hashmi, Springboard Collaborative’s Assistant Vice President of Data & Evaluation. “From past studies, we know that our summer programming has a positive impact on students. We look forward to studying the efficacy of our after-school model so we can continue to serve even more students nationwide.”

For more information on the research project, contact Sarah Asson.