Executive Summary

To evaluate the effectiveness of the Summer Enrichment and Academic Success Program (SEAS) students were administered a multiple choice, criterion referenced test on the second day and again on the final day of the SEAS program. Students were tested in at least one of several content areas designed to match the SEAS curriculum. The 1997 SEAS curriculum adopted a science framework to teach both language arts and mathematics. All elementary and middle school students were tested in Science / Language Arts and Science / Mathematics. High school students were tested in one of seven content areas. The seven tests administered to high school students were: (1) Biology, (2) Earth Science, (3) Language Arts, (4) Beginning Algebra,

For the SEAS program to be considered successful there would need to be evidence of an increase in test scores, and an increase in the number of students reaching proficiency following completion of the program. These two assumptions were investigated respectively by comparing pre-test and post-test means and the percentage of students reaching proficiency before and after completing the SEAS program. Proficiency was considered demonstrated if the student answered at least 80% of the items correctly. All scores and therefore all means were expressed as the percentage of items answered correctly. All comparisons were conducted separately for elementary, middle and high school students.

Of the 32 elementary schools participating in the SEAS program, 29 demonstrated post-test gains in Science/Language Arts ranging from 1.22 percent for Drachman Elementary to 68.5 percent for Sewell Elementary. On the other hand three schools showed a drop in the percentage correct from pre-test to post-test (Davidson, Erickson and Safford). The largest drop from pre-test to post-test was found for Safford Elementary (-2.99%). The same proportion of schools showed gains from pre-test to post-test in Science/Mathematics. However the only school to show a drop in both tests following completion of the program was Safford Elementary. When comparing the percentage of students achieving proficiency before and after completion of the program, six of the 32 elementary schools showed either no increase or a decrease in the percentage of students achieving proficiency in Science/Language Arts (Davidson, Drachman, Myers, Richey, Van Buskirk, and Warren). Similar results were obtained when comparing the same students both before and after the SEAS program (matched). Across all elementary schools there was an average gain of 11.48 percent correct in Science/Language Arts, and a gain of 10.70 percent correct in Science/Mathematics. The percentage of students reaching proficiency increased from 7.63 percent to 19.71 percent in Science/Language Arts, and from 9.66 percent to 19.16 percent in Science/Mathematics across all elementary schools.

All of the 18 middle schools that participated in the SEAS program demonstrated post-test gains in both Science/Language Arts and Science/Mathematics following completion of the SEAS program. Gains ranged from .05 percent for Fickett to 40.88 percent for Utterback in Science/Language Arts, and from 1.96 percent for Hohokam to 53.08 percent for Utterback in Science/mathematics. Sixteen of the 18 schools showed an increase in the percentage of students reaching proficiency in Science/Language Arts following completion of the SEAS program. The only two schools failing to show an increase in proficiency rate was Hohokam and Southwest Alternative. Six of the 18 participating middle schools failed to show an increase in the number of proficient students in Science/Mathematics (Doolen, Fickett, Hohokam, Safford, Middle School Accommodations and Southwest Alternative).

High school tests were broken out by tests representing the more specific curriculum. Of the nine high schools participating in the SEAS program six demonstrated overall gains in Science/Language Arts in terms of percentage of correct responses from pre-test to post-test. Rincon, Sabino and Sahuaro high schools showed an overall reduction in the percentage of correct responses from pre-test to post-test. Seven out of the nine high schools showed post-test gains in Science/Mathematics. Although the percentage of correct responses for Santa Rita went down from pre-test to post-test in Intermediate Algebra, the percentage of correct responses increased for Beginning Algebra. Tucson High showed five percent fewer correct responses on the Beginning Algebra Post-test and two percent more correct responses on Foundations. Although some high schools demonstrated small decreases in performance, taken together high schools demonstrated gains in test scores making up Science/Language Arts and Science/Mathematics.