Date of Award
2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Committee Chair
Jim Palermo
Abstract
The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a Community Math Academy (summer camp) in a southeastern school district in an effort to prevent the summer learning loss often experienced by students. The study intended to provide the Community Math Academy staff insight into the nature of the site, to assess the success of the 3-week implementation, to observe student interaction with program lessons and materials, and to provide feedback to the funding agencies, partner organizations, project team, participants, and stakeholders.
Data collection procedures included student journals examining student attitudes towards math, pre and posttest data, and survey data. Daniel Stufflebeam’s CIPP model was used for this program evaluation (Fitzpatrick, Sanders, & Worthen, 2011). Three research questions were used to guide the study: (a) What impact does the Community Math Academy have on student math performance after 3 weeks of participation based on pre and posttest data in 2018; (b) What are fifth- and sixth-grade student perceptions of the Community Math Academy based on common themes and coding of students journals; and (c) What are educator, parent, and community member perceptions of the effectiveness of the Community Math Academy based on survey data?
The researcher found that students improved significantly from their pretest to posttest when they participated in the high quality summer program. These results correlated to the positive journal responses and stakeholder survey responses. Recommendations for future research include opening more sites or increasing the capacity at existing sites in order to serve more children. Also, there is a recommendation to redevelop the sixth-grade posttest, so it is a mastery-based assessment similar to the fifth-grade assessment. Last, the researcher recommends evaluating the other Math Academy sites in order to compare data between sites.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Citation Information
Grier, Danielle, "Efficacy of a Summer Math Academy Program to Improve Student Motivation and Student Knowledge and Skills in a Rural Southeastern Community" (2018). Education Dissertations and Projects. 308.
https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/education_etd/308