S-confini - a summer camp targeted to low achievers

Last registered on July 16, 2021
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
S-confini - a summer camp targeted to low achievers
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007966
Initial registration date
July 16, 2021

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
July 16, 2021, 11:51 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Italy
Region
Milan

Primary Investigator

Name
Gianluca Argentin
Affiliation
Milano Bicocca University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Gianpaolo Barbetta
PI Affiliation
Catholic University of Milan
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2021-05-24
End date
2021-10-31
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
summer camp, learning loss
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The intervention is a quite intensive summer camp, targeted on low achieving students in primary schools and lasting about one month, during school summer break. Its main aim is supporting achievement for students highly affected by COVID19 pandemic, due to their prior low education performances and to lack of strong parental support.
The project involves three primary scools in Milan, all enrolling mainly students from lower social origins and with migratory background. The summer camp is organized in three locations (one for each primary school) and delivers both support with holiday homeworks and entertaining activities for children, such as outdoor games, team sport competitions, theater, etc. Children aged around 8 to 10, are called to attend 4 hours of activities 5 days a week, for 4 weeks, and are supervised by trained educators.
School teachers proposed 156 low achieving students, attending grades 3 to 5, on the basis of their need of support.
Pupils were assessed - with all their classmates - before the intervention, through ad hoc standardized tests in reading and math. Pupils were also asked to fill a questionnaire collecting information on their social background and their attitudes towards school and achievement.
Pupils were sorted in 17 groups (randomization blocks) based on schools/grades/performance in pre-intervention test (above/before the median). Pupils were individually randomized to treatment (participation to the summer camp, 83 cases) or control group (73 cases).
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Argentin, Gianluca and Gianpaolo Barbetta. 2021. "S-confini - a summer camp targeted to low achievers." AEA RCT Registry. July 16. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7966-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention is a quite intensive summer camp, targeted on low achieving students in primary schools and lasting about one month, during school summer break. Its main aim is supporting achievement for students highly affected by COVID19 pandemic, due to their prior low education performances and to lack of strong parental support.
The project involves three primary scools in Milan, all enrolling mainly students from lower social origins and with migratory background. The summer camp is organized in three locations (one for each primary school) and delivers both support with holiday homeworks and entertaining activities for children, such as outdoor games, team sport competitions, theater, etc. Children aged around 8 to 10, are called to attend 4 hours of activities 5 days a week, for 4 weeks, and are supervised by trained educators.
Intervention Start Date
2021-06-21
Intervention End Date
2021-07-16

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Pupils achievement in reading and math, assesed through ad hoc standardized tests
We are interested not only in detecting improvement in students' achievement, but also in the narrowing of summer loss for these children (by comparing randomized children with their classmates), especially after the severe impact on their achievement due to COVID19 pandemic.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Students attitudes towards school and achievement, collected through questionnaire.
More precisley, we collect information about:
- positive future projection in school pathways;
- interests towards math and reading;
- well being at school;
- positive relations with peers.

We also collect data on additional secondary outcomes that may be affected by the intervention also outside school, namely:
- general well being;
- free time cultural activities.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
- positive future projection in school pathways (one scale, 6 items)
- interests towards math and reading (one scale for each subject, 5 items)
- well being at school (one scale, 9 items);
- positive relations with peers (one scale, 6 items).
- general well being (one scale, 6 items);
- free time cultural activities (one scale, 11 items).

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The project involves three primary scools in Milan, all enrolling mainly students from low social origins and with migratory background.
School teachers proposed 156 low achieving primtary school students, attending grades 3 to 5, on the basis of their need of support.
Pupils were assessed - with all their classmates - before the intervention (baseline), through ad hoc standardized tests in reading and math. Pupils were also asked to fill a questionnaire collecting information on their social background and attitudes towards school and achievement.
In September, at the beginning of the new school year, pupils will be followed up with a new assessment+ questionnaire to be administered in their classes.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Pupils were sorted in 17 groups (randomization blocks) based on schools/grades/performance in pre-intervention test (above/before the median) and randomized to treatment (participation to the summer camp, 83 cases) or control group (73 cases). Randomization was performed at indiviual level - using randon number in Excel - within each block, assigning one additional case to treatment when the numbers of pupils in the block was odd. Blocking was based on school/grade/pre-intervention performance (above/belove the median).
Randomization Unit
Individual pupils
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
3 schools, each one with a dedicated summer camp
Sample size: planned number of observations
156 students (+ their classmates, in order to compute relative summer loss both for treatment and control group)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
3 schools/156 students
All schools are involved in the treatment.
83 students belong to treatmen group and 73 to control group.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
MDES (in standard deviation) was computed using PowerUP! sheet 1.0 IRA: Assuming Rsquared equal to 0.6 (thanks to blocking variables + pre-intervention outcomes measures), MDES would be 0.286 sheet 2.2 BIRA2_1f: 0.294 (rsq=0.60)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials