ABSTRACT
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many students had their educational experiences disrupted as schools became shuttered and for some students virtual schooling began. When school facilities closed and online began, families had increased responsibilities for their children's education. Subsequently, there is an increase in attention to understanding how families support the academic development of their school-aged children.Informed by Bronfenbrenner's ecological and bioecological models, as well as, cultural capital theory, I used the READS for Summer Learning longitudinal dataset and conducted various statistical analyses-univariate, bivariate, and regression (logistic, ordinal, and multiple)-to explain the nature of family involvement in promoting learning during the summer for rising fourth graders, and examine the relationship between family involvement and learning experiences of rising fourth-graders during the summer and later reading achievement. I also examined to what extent summer activities varied by gender, race/ethnicity, free and reduced lunch status, and previous reading abilities.The findings showed that gender, previous reading achievement, and FRL status explain variations in fall reading achievement scores. Of particular importance was the lack of difference in summer activities across different racial/ethnic groups. Drawing on the findings, I make recommendations related to teaching phonics, scaffolding summertime learning experiences based on children's needs for family involvement to support reading achievement, and using better measures to predict reading achievement were outlined. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)