Many students lose knowledge and skills over the long summer break, and research suggests that low-income students fall further behind over the summer than their higher-income peers. Voluntary summer learning programs may provide an opportunity to stem summer learning loss and give struggling students additional learning opportunities. The Wallace Foundation is funding a five-year demonstration project in five urban school districts in Boston, Dallas, Duval County (Florida), Pittsburgh, and Rochester (New York). These districts have been pioneers in offering full-day voluntary programs for five to six weeks free of charge to large numbers of struggling elementary students, not just those facing grade retention. Over 5,000 third-grade students applied to participate in the district programs, and were randomly selected to participate in two summers of programming (summer 2013 and summer 2014). This study, commissioned by The Wallace Foundation, is the first randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of large-scale, district-run, voluntary summer learning programs. The overarching question addressed in this research is whether voluntary, district-run summer programs that include academic and enrichment activities improve low-income students' outcomes. [For the full report, "Ready for Fall? Near-Term Effects of Voluntary Summer Learning Programs on Low-Income Students' Learning Opportunities and Outcomes," see ED561140. For the report's technical appendices, see ED561141.]