Most students progress in learning when school is in session. However, during the summer months formal education often ends, and many of the gains students make during the academic year are lost over the summer break. The Alpine School District developed the Students and Teachers Achieving Reading Success (STARS) program, an extensive summer reading program for struggling readers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the STARS program on reading ability for students exiting the first grade, as measured by the Developmental Reading Assessment 2 (DRA2). Results from a mixed-method ANOVA indicated that STARS students performed better than a nonequivalent control group (p < .001). Results from the multilevel growth modeling analysis provide evidence that the STARS participants performed better than those who were eligible for the program but did not participate. STARS participants improved in their reading ability at a significantly higher rate than students who were not eligible for the program and did not participate. The results indicated that the reading achievement gap of STARS participants narrowed by the end of second grade. Moderation variables were not statistically significant in their impact of reading trajectories between STARS participants and nonparticipants.