An Evaluation of a Remedial Summer Camp in the Dominican Republic

Last registered on January 27, 2025

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

An Evaluation of a Remedial Summer Camp in the Dominican Republic

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0015257

Initial registration date

January 22, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

January 27, 2025, 8:27 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

Dominican Republic

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Carolina Concha-Arriagada

Affiliation

Columbia University, Teachers College

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Carolina Concha-Arriagada

PI Affiliation

Assistant Professor of Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and lead researcher at the Development Innovation Lab

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Guthrie Gray-Lobe

PI Affiliation

Lead Researcher at the Development Innovation Lab

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PI Name

Michael Kremer

PI Affiliation

Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago

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Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2024-06-01

End date

2025-03-31

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

Education, Summer Camp, Foundational Learning, Grade Repetition, Literacy, Numeracy, Migrant Students

JEL code(s)

I21 (Evaluation of Education), I25 (Education and Economic Development)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

This study evaluates the cost-effectiveness of a three-week (15-day) summer camp program in the Dominican Republic to reduce grade repetition and improve academic performance for students struggling with foundational literacy and numeracy. The program, developed and implemented by the Dominican Ministry of Education (MINERD), targets low-achieving and overage students in grades 3-5 who are at high risk of being held back. We will examine the impact of invitations to the program on attendance at the camp, test scores, grade retention, and dropout using randomized invitations to the program. We have already examined the impacts on attendance. Randomized invitations are associated with 3.9 more days of summer camp attendance and a 26 percentage point increase in the fraction of students who attend at least two-thirds (10 days) of the course. We will also examine the impact of attendance at the camp directly on test scores, grade retention, and dropout.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Concha-Arriagada, Carolina et al. 2025. "An Evaluation of a Remedial Summer Camp in the Dominican Republic." AEA RCT Registry. January 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15257-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Partner

Name

Ministry of Education of the Dominican Republic (MINERD)

Type

government

URL

https://www.ministeriodeeducacion.gob.do/https://

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The summer camp program was a three-week (15-day) intensive intervention designed to improve foundational literacy and numeracy skills among primary school students (grades 3-5) in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Ministry of Education (MINERD) developed and implemented the program from July 8th to July 26th, 2024.
The program targeted low-achieving and overage students at high risk of being held back in the next year. Students in the program were divided into grade-specific classrooms of 25, with two teachers assigned to each classroom. Daily activities were held from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm.
The program focused on strengthening students' foundational skills in literacy and numeracy, aligned with the national curriculum. The specific content and activities included:
Literacy: Developing phonemic awareness, phonics skills, reading fluency, and comprehension strategies.
Numeracy: Reinforcing number sense, basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), and problem-solving skills.
The program utilized various instructional methods, including interactive games and activities, small group instruction to provide targeted support and address individual learning needs, and individualized practice to reinforce concepts and build fluency.

Intervention (Hidden)

Intervention Start Date

2024-07-08

Intervention End Date

2025-01-26

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Endline assessment results in literacy and numeracy (continuous).
Repetition (binary): Whether the student repeated a grade since the start of the intervention.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

The primary outcome measures are students' scores on the endline assessment in literacy and numeracy and whether or not they repeat a grade at some point between the start of the intervention and the end of their primary and secondary school education.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Dropout (binary): Whether the student dropped out of school.
Grades in sequential years (continuous): This could be collected in follow-up studies.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

The secondary outcome measures are whether or not the student drops out of school at some point in their academic career and their grades in sequential years.

Experimental Design

The study uses a randomized controlled trial design. Students were randomly assigned to either the summer camp treatment group or the control group. The target sample is primary school students (grades 3-5) in the Dominican Republic.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Stratified randomization conducted by MINERD.

Randomization Unit

Student

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

5482

Sample size: planned number of observations

5482

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Summer camp treatment group: 3369 students
Control group: 2113 students

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

The study is powered to detect an intent-to-effect size of 0.05 standard deviations on student test scores. It is also powered to detect a treatment on the treated effect between 0.22 and 0.15 standard deviations using a 2SLS. We specify an alpha level of 0.05 and a power of 0.80.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB