A Springfield summer lifts reading scores twofold

In Springfield, Massachusetts, a four-week summer literacy program built for middle school students reading below grade level has produced twice the MAP-score growth seen in the prior school year—showing districts what careful tutoring, family outreach, and co

For a lot of families in Springfield, Massachusetts, summer used to mean one thing: another long stretch where learning momentum could stall.

In 2023, Bob Bolduc, founder of Hope for Youth and Families, started looking for a specific fix. He pointed to a gap in student reading success in Springfield and wanted a solution that would directly support middle school students reading below grade level. In 2024. Hope for Youth and Families partnered with Storyshares and HILL for Literacy to build an intensive four-week summer literacy program.

The impact came fast enough to be measured. Students who completed the program in that first summer showed twice as much growth in their MAP scores as their peers had shown during the entire school year. The following summer. students produced the same impressive growth—turning what began as a local search for answers into something districts can now study.

The core of the program is built around people, not just lesson plans: families, small groups, carefully chosen materials, and a structure designed to raise both reading performance and confidence.

Family connections come first. The program recruits between 120 and 150 students from schools throughout the community. Most of the families speak two languages. so the program includes a Spanish speaker on staff to help cross the language barrier. Hope for Youth and Families reaches out through open houses and online meet-and-greets held multiple times throughout the year. Families are told the program supports academics. offers students a safe place to be. and that they can enroll at no cost—an especially important detail in Springfield. which the program describes as one of the poorest cities in the state.

Once students are in, instruction runs at a pace designed for improvement. The program is modeled on high-intensity tutoring delivered in a small-group class setting. Each classroom has about 15 students and two to three adults trained in the full set of materials, pedagogy, and skills. The goal is a 5:1 student-to-teacher ratio. achieved by combining licensed educators with interns who are interested in youth development and literacy education.

Instruction follows the Literacy Intervention for Teens (LIFT) curriculum. which is built to deliver high-intensity. scaffolded lessons while keeping what Dr. Anita Archer calls “perky pace.” In practice. that means teachers may spend 20 minutes on direct instruction. then move into practice and choice. Choice matters because many students arrive with low confidence—students who have repeatedly been told they’re not good at reading. In the program’s approach, confidence is rebuilt by giving students materials they can read and want to read.

The book stacks also reflect that belief in choice and belonging. The program serves students in grades 4 to 8. and over the years it has built a library of ebooks and printed books across the age range. Older struggling readers aren’t asked to read stories “about butterflies and The Cat in the Hat.” Instead. they’re given stories about kids like them dealing with the dilemmas of being a pre-teen or a teen. helping them connect with the reading materials. For students who prefer physical books over ebooks, the program prints materials. This year, for the first time, it is also using paper workbooks to show students’ progress. The workbooks are meant to help students stay organized and look back at the results of what they’ve done.

The program tracks progress in two ways: through workbooks and through more traditional assessments. In past years, it has used CORE and DIBELS to assess reading speed, fluency, and comprehension. Because the program is short. the initial assessment is designed for the first day of programming. and the final assessment is scheduled as close to the end of the last week as possible.

But reading growth isn’t the only goal. The program pairs reading with creative writing, arguing that a summer literacy program can’t focus solely on test results. Students “relish” creative writing because they can write what they want in response to a teacher’s prompt. Writing is engaging because it isn’t graded. and it gives students a way to practice what they’re learning about reading. Finished products sometimes don’t make it to the end of class. or students’ writing can feel a little wandering—but the pride is immediate. “Look what I wrote!” is something the program’s director says she has often heard from students.

Another ingredient is who teaches the students. Many of the interns are from the area. The program says students see themselves in these near peers. and they internalize a simple message: if you can do this. I can do it too. The near-peer role models are meant to make it easier to relate to someone close in age. and they help foster a positive classroom culture.

Hope for Youth and Families frames the program as demanding—but worth it. Launching a summer literacy program, the director says, takes hard work and organization, but it pays off when middle schoolers can read proficiently and gain more choices for what comes next.

One student is held up as a turning point. He was in the program the first summer. When he moved into 9th grade, he was reading very close to grade level, but not quite there. The program says it worked extensively on his reading comprehension and stamina. When the director visited his school in the fall. he told her. “I want you to know I’m out of remedial English. And because of that, I got to choose an elective, and I’m in Junior ROTC. I love it!. I never thought I’d be able to do something like that.”.

For districts looking at summer literacy now, the lesson isn’t just that scores moved. It’s that the program seems to treat reading as something students can reclaim—through structure, materials that feel relevant, and staff members who help them believe they can keep going.

summer reading program summer literacy Springfield Massachusetts MAP scores LIFT curriculum CORE DIBELS Hope for Youth and Families Storyshares HILL for Literacy middle school reading intervention