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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 1st 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 1st 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 3rd or 4th 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
Link to program curriculum: http://www.summerlearning.org/index.html
References
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.
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., 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.
Program categorized in this guide according to the
following:
Evaluated participant ages: K-1 / Program age ranges
in the Guide: 0-5, 6-11
Measured outcomes: education and cognitive development
KEYWORDS: Summer Program, Education, Elementary
School , Literacy, Service Learning, Kindergarten, College Students, Civic
Engagement, Community Service, Skills Training, Academic Achievement, Urban,
At-Risk, Child Care, Early Childhood Education, School-Based, Cognitive
Development, Early Childhood (0-5), Middle Childhood (6-11).
Program information last updated 3/14/07
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