The Impact of Newsela on At-risk 7th and 8th Grade Students

This resource was provided by ACSA Partner4Purpose Newsela.

Research dating back over a century documents summer learning “loss”, “slide”, or “setback” — a phenomenon where, over the summer, students forget some of the skills they worked hard to master the previous school year. Seminal research suggests loss is proportionately greater at the secondary level and for students who exhibited below-level performance during the previous school year. This research study looked at whether below-level readers in 7th and 8th grade would exhibit vocabulary and comprehension gains following a summer learning experience using Newsela, a digital instructional content platform offering teachers engaging, standards-aligned lessons and content materials.