Feature Story

July 3, 2007

Ingredients of a Successful Summer Learning Program

Urban Institute:

In previous work (Chaplin and Capizzano 2006), we evaluated a summer learning intervention that receives both federal and private funding, the Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL) Accelerated Learning Summer Program.

It examines whether program components were implemented with fidelity (i.e., as they said they would be in program documents) and describes implementation issues that may affect whether the BELL program can be replicated in other sites.

In previous work (Chaplin and Capizzano 2006), we conducted an evaluation of a summer learning intervention and found it to be effective using the gold standard of research methods, random assignment.

Given those positive results, this new paper describes the specific elements of the successful program so it can be replicated, and investigates potential barriers to implementation and replication.

This observation and interview-based process study describes activities that occurred during the summers of 2004 and 2005 in an academically-oriented summer program that receives both federal and private funding: the Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL) Accelerated Learning Summer Program.

It employs well-developed curricula in both reading and math and contains features of positive developmental settings outlined by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine in the report, Community Programs to Promote Youth Development (2002).