Experience Corps

OVERVIEW

Experience Corps is a school-based program designed to improve academic achievement and reduce disruptive classroom behavior in urban elementary school students. The program is located in Baltimore, Maryland and brings in older adult volunteers to serve in the classroom 15+ hours per week. The program is designed to improve the learning readiness of children in the areas of literacy and behavior. The experimental evaluation of Experience Corps found that out of six randomly assigned participating schools, those schools with students in Experience Corps scored higher on a standardized reading test and had fewer office referrals for classroom misbehavior than those schools whose students were not in the program.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Children in grades K-3

The Experience Corps program was designed to impact the classroom behavior and academic achievement of elementary school students in urban schools. The program uses older adults who volunteer in classrooms 15+ hours a week. Adult volunteers receive training and are placed in roles identified by school principals as serving the greatest unmet need. Older adult volunteers serve for an entire school year.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Rebok, G.W., Carlson, M.C., Glass, T.A., McGill, S., Hill, J., Wasik, B.A., Ialongo, N., Frick, K.D., Fried, L.P., & Rasmussen, M.D. (2004). Short-term impact of Experience Corps participation on children and schools: Results from a pilot randomized trial. Journal of Urban Health, 81(1), 79-93.

Evaluated population: 1194 K-3 students in 6 elementary schools in Baltimore, MD.

Approach: Three elementary schools were randomly assigned to receive the Experience Corps program and three elementary schools were randomly assigned as control schools. Approximately 95 percent of the students in the sample were African-American and the rest were Caucasian/other. In total, 688 students were at the experimental schools and 506 students were at the control schools. The students were assessed in fall 1999/winter 2000, and again in spring/summer 2000.

The researchers assessed child outcome measures using the PPVT-III, the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP), the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS), and through an assessment of Alphabet recognition. To measure school and teacher outcomes, the researchers used a five-item measure of teacher self-efficacy, a 20-item survey on teacher perceptions about seniors in the classroom, and a teacher rating of school climate.

Results: Results of the program showed that at follow-up, MSPAP reading scores for third graders in each of the treatment schools had increased. Two of the control schools, however, reported decreases in scores and the third reported only insignificant increases. Results from the CTBS test showed that students in Experience Corps schools gained anywhere from 10 to 20 percentile points in reading ranks whereas the control schools dropped from 4 to 6 percentile points. Non-significant gains were found on tests of alphabet recognition and vocabulary ability.

Two of the three schools in the experimental group experienced a 50 percent drop in the number of referrals to principals while the third school still reported a drop of 34 percent. Control group schools did not experience a similar change in the number of office referrals. While teachers reported high-perceived teaching efficacy rates, there were no significant differences between teachers in experimental and control schools. Similarly, there were no overall differences found between the two groups for the school climate measure. Researchers concluded that Experience Corps resulted in improvements in some student reading achievement, academic achievement, and classroom behavior.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References

Website: http://www.experiencecorps.org/index.cfm

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: 5-9/Program age ranges in the Guide: 0-5, 6-11

Program components: child care/early childhood education; mentoring/tutoring; school-based

Measured outcomes: education and cognitive development; behavioral problems

KEYWORDS: School-based, Behavioral Problems, Disruptive Behavior Disorders, Middle Childhood, Urban, Kindergarten, Elementary.

Program information last updated 3/16/07

		© Child Trends 2004