An Evaluation of a Remedial Summer Camp in the Dominican Republic

Last registered on January 27, 2025
View Trial History

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
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
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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, 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

Sponsors

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 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

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
Not available
Randomization Method
Stratified randomization conducted by MINERD.
Randomization Unit
Student
Was the treatment clustered?
No

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

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Social and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board, The University of Chicago
IRB Approval Date
2024-12-13
IRB Approval Number
IRB-241522
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Pre-Analysis Plan: An Evaluation of a Remedial Summer Camp in the Dominican Republic

MD5: 12a33dd9310fb61a853ce1101446710b

SHA1: 9a4b67b21ec2ee9b3d6430707e6a1480c25c2174

Uploaded At: January 22, 2025