Free, district-run summer-learning programs can help narrow the math achievement gap among low-income elementary school students, a RAND Corporation report finds. Commissioned by the Wallace Foundation, the report, Ready for Fall? Near-Term Effects of Voluntary Summer Learning Programs on Low-Income Students' Learning Opportunities and Outcome (72 pages, PDF), found that in the five urban school districts studied, children entering fourth grade in the fall who attended a full-day learning program combining academics and enrichment activities during the previous summer scored higher on math assessments than those who didn't. The report also found that participation in a full-day summer program did not make a difference in reading and social-emotional assessments. In addition, the report noted that for math (but not reading), strong attendance and more hours of academic instruction were linked to better outcomes, while for reading (but not math), instructional quality, teachers' grade-level experience, and site orderliness were associated with better outcomes.