Guide to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth

Teach Baltimore

OVERVIEW

The Teach Baltimore program was founded in 1992 to create a high quality, intensive summer learning opportunity for students in Baltimore City. It is a summer program that provides reading and writing instruction to low-income elementary students. The program has three goals: to prevent summer learning loss in elementary school students, to promote committed volunteerism for college students, and to create an easily replicable program. Participants in the program are involved for multiple summers. An evaluation of Teach Baltimore found that participants in the program experienced academic gains.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Kindergarten and first graders in low-income elementary schools

The Teach Baltimore program is an academically intensive summer program that recruits and trains university students to provide approximately eight weeks of reading and writing instruction to low-income elementary students. The program has three goals. First, Teach Baltimore works to prevent summer learning loss and promote the academic achievement of student participants. Second, the program works to focus college volunteerism to an effective commitment. Third, Teach Baltimore works to be a prototype program that can be easily replicated.

The program targets students most at-risk for summer learning loss. These students are provided instruction in small groups of eight. The program provides 2.5 hours of reading and writing each morning and the curriculum is supplemented with other activities to keep participants interested. Classroom instructors are university students who are trained in a two-week pre-service program. University students do not need to be education majors but need to be positive and motivated. University students are provided a $1,000-$1400 living allowance for the summer.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Borman, G. D., Rachuba, L. T., Fairchild, R., & Kaplan, J. (2002). Randomized evaluation of a multi-year summer program: Teach Baltimore. Year 3 report (draft). Baltimore, MD: Center for Summer Learning, Johns Hopkins University.

Borman, G.D., Overman, L.T., Fairchild, R., Boulay, M., & Kaplan, J. (2004). Can a multiyear summer program prevent the accumulation of summer learning losses? In G.D. Borman & M. Boulay (Eds.). Summer Learning: Research, Policies, and Programs (pp. 233-253). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Evaluated population: Two cohorts, the first from 1999 and the second from 2000, of Teach Baltimore students who were in kindergarten and first grade were evaluated. All students were from 10 high-poverty urban schools in Baltimore.

Approach: In the 1999 cohort, 293 students were randomly assigned to the Teach Baltimore program and 135 students were randomly assigned to a control condition. In 2000, 145 kindergarten students were randomly assigned to the experimental group and 113 were randomly assigned to the control condition. In total, 686 students were involved in the evaluation (428 experimental students, 258 control students). Evaluated students attended the 8 elementary schools in the Baltimore City Public School System.

The researchers collected student background data using school databases. Variables included gender, race/ethnicity, free-lunch eligibility status, and attendance rates. Data were also collected using telephone surveys with parents. The Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills was administered to students to determine achievement through reading vocabulary and reading comprehension scores. Data were collected in the spring before students began the program and again the fall after students had completed the program. Throughout the fall semester, participants were contacted to obtain updated information.

Results: At randomization, the experimental and control groups were found to be equivalent. Results of the study indicated that for the 2000 cohort, the program had no impact on achievement at program end in the fall, and no impacts were found the following spring. However, after the second summer of intervention, there was a slight improvement. Similar results were found with the 1999 cohort except significant outcomes were not found until after the third summer. The researchers concluded that the program has a cumulative impact over multiple years.

Borman, G.D., Rachuba, L., Hewes, G., Boulay, M., & Kaplan, J. (2001). Can a summer intervention program using trained volunteer teachers narrow the achievement gap? First-year results from a multi-year study. ERS Spectrum, 19(2), 19-29.

Evaluated Population: 428 Baltimore students in kindergarten and first grades. All students were from 10 high-poverty urban schools in Baltimore.

Approach: This study reported the first-year results of an ongoing, three-year evaluation of the Teach Baltimore (TB) program. The ultimate goal of the evaluation was to assess the long-term impact of a multi-summer intervention on academic achievement for low-income students. A total of 135 students were in the control group while 293 were assigned to the treatment group and received the Teach Baltimore program. In general, TB applicants had higher attendance rates than non-applicants. On all other demographic measures, however, the groups were considered similar. Teach Baltimore was offered from June through August of that summer. Five sites offered the program and all were centrally located in relation to the ten participating schools.

The evaluation began in the spring of 1999, when all kindergarten and 1^st grade students attending ten high-poverty urban schools received applications forms for the TB program. Students who applied were then randomly assigned to either the control or experimental group. Approximately 79 percent of students in Baltimore qualified for the program according to free or reduced lunch status. Demographic information on participants was collected from Baltimore Public Schools as well as parents’ reported level of education.

Data were collected to measure spring to fall reading achievement growth. In the spring, all kindergartners, regardless of application, completed the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS), which measures reading vocabulary and reading comprehension. Schools administered the CTBS for 1^st graders. Over the course of three years, all treatment and control participants will take the CTBS norm-referenced reading achievement tests. There will be a total of 7 tests and these will be administered at the beginning and end of each summer, as well as at the end of the 3^rd or 4^th grade year.

Results: The analysis incorporated all treatment participants and all control participants. Teach Baltimore participants reported greater gains in reading achievement than control students, although none of these outcomes were statistically significant. Also, students in the treatment group outperformed students in the control group on the posttest (after adjusting for pretest performance), but these differences were also not statistically significant. The attendance rates should be noted since they will have an effect on the results. Twenty percent of kindergarten students never attended and 34 percent had attendance rates between 1 percent and 75 percent. The remaining 46 percent attended more than 75 percent of the time. For first graders, 23 percent never attended, 31 percent attended between 1 percent and 75 percent of the time and 46 percent attended more than 75 percent of the time.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References

Website: http://www.summerlearning.org/index.html

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: K-1 / Program age ranges in the Guide: 0-5, 6-11

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

Measured outcomes: education and cognitive development

Program information last updated 3/14/07