Mile High United Way: The Bridge Project

The Bridge Project provides a comprehensive early literacy intervention targeting students in K-3rd grade, with the goal of achieving reading at grade level by the end of third grade. The Bridge Project offers participants the opportunity to experience many facets of literacy and allows them to take an active role in their learning through a combination of three direct literacy programs:

• Small group instruction (Read Well)
• One-to-one tutoring
• The provision of books to students (GR8 Readers)

Study Goals:

This evaluation included an implementation and impact assessment to determine whether students who receive Bridge Project services show greater gains in literacy skills than similar students who did not receive Bridge services.

Research Questions:

The research questions were:

• Implementation Questions:

1. What level of program intervention was provided?
2. To what extent did volunteer tutors and education specialists deliver the program with fidelity? Was this consistent across Bridge sites?
3. What are implementation challenges associated with each type of intervention, do these differ as a function of child or site characteristics, timing of the intervention, and what are acceptable solutions to these challenges?

• Impact Questions:

1. Do more Bridge children show greater improvements in reading at or above grade level than comparison children at the end of each year and at the end of the study?
2. Do Bridge children show greater reading gains than comparison children, within each academic year and across all years of the study?
3. Do Bridge children show greater improvement in rates of school attendance than comparison children, within each academic year and across all years of the study (secondary outcome)?
4. Are more Bridge children reading at or above grade level by the end of third grade than comparison children?
5. Does the amount or type of literacy programming predict reading gains? For example, does the number of years of participation in the program predict reading gains?
6. What is the strength of the relationship between number of hours of participation and reading gains? Does this differ across program component?
7. Which literacy program activities are most closely associated to reading gains; what are the critical program elements for success?
8. Are results for grades K-3 maintained for Bridge children who reach fourth or fifth grade during the study period? Do these Bridge children show greater long-term gains in reading achievement than comparison children?

Findings:

The summative evaluation report found the following:

• The Bridge program appears to significantly benefit students’ reading proficiency, particularly after the first year of programming. By their second and third years in the program, Bridge students were outperforming their peers.
• The number of programming elements received and the amount of programming received in each element was positively related to reading proficiency.
• Overall, it does not appear that the Bridge program is related to school attendance.
• Read Well and tutoring sessions were largely on-task and provided high-quality instruction to Bridge students. High quality indicators included educator competencies and demonstrated student learning in the five fundamental literacy skill areas.

For more information, download the full report and report brief.