Summer reading programs as a means of addressing the growing academic gap between high- and low-income students

An effective education system is the backbone of a successful society, as it teaches future citizens and workers the skills and knowledge they need to be productive members of said society. In a nation as large and diverse as the United States of America, there are bound to be challenges and setbacks when implementing an operational education system. However, this does not excuse the fact that the public education system has failed to adequately address the consistently growing gap in academic skills between students from high- and low-income backgrounds. This has had a profound negative impact on the opportunity that many low-income students have to become engaged and accomplished adults. In my thesis, I present the argument that summer reading programs are an overlooked option to address this academic gap. I do so by analyzing the nature of this gap, how Summer Reading Setback (SRS) is the main reason the gap exists, how summer reading programs can be used to address SRS and the subsequent gap, and, finally, by analyzing the effectiveness of a summer reading program that I myself created and implemented. It is my hope that this paper spreads awareness of the large academic gap between students of different socioeconomic classes and encourages further research and funding for summer reading programs to address this problem.Honors CollegeThesis (B.?