Executive Summary LitCamp is a summer literacy and enrichment program for students in Grades kindergarten through 8. 1 LitCamp aims to build students’ social-emotional skills around what the program refers to as “the 7 strengths”—belonging, curiosity, friendship, kindness, confidence, courage, and hope—by incorporating these concepts into reading and writing texts and lessons and combining them with an engaging summer camp approach. Scholastic Research & Validation partnered with RMC Research to conduct a third-party evaluation of Scholastic Presents LitCamp as it was implemented 2 in summer 2018 by Schenectady City School District in New York. The district provided two hours of LitCamp instruction daily to students in kindergarten through Grade 6 as the literacy component of its districtwide Summer Enrichment Program.
Evaluation Overview The evaluation aimed to answer the following questions:
1. How did students’ reading knowledge change as a result of their exposure to LitCamp?
2. How did students’ reading behaviors and attitudes toward reading change as a result of their exposure to LitCamp?
3. How did teachers perceive LitCamp?
4. What did LitCamp implementation look like in practice?
Additionally, the evaluation examined the effects LitCamp had on a subsample of students and their families. 3
RMC Research collected and analyzed quantitative data through student (Grades 3–5) and teacher surveys and qualitative data through teacher focus groups, classroom observations, and family interviews. RMC Research also explored reading achievement data shared by the district for students (Grades K–5) who participated in the Summer Enrichment Program who received two hours of LitCamp instruction daily (“LitCamp students”; n = 266) and a statistically similar comparison group of students (“Comparison students”; n = 266) who were not enrolled in the Summer Enrichment Program. Findings presented in this report reflect the analysis of data from students, teachers, and families.
1 Grade corresponds to grade level completed in the spring. 2 LitCamp was designed for flexible implementation—providing 50 hours (20 lessons) of literacy instruction within a 4- to 8-week time frame. 3 See the Case Study titled, "How LitCamp Positively Impacted Students’ Literacy & Social-emotional Learning" at http://scholastic.com/research.
LITCAMP EVALUATION IN SCHENECTADY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 1
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