The Vista Hermosa Foundation

Results
Program Summary Report

2005 Summary

Building upon lessons learned from past years, Day Camp 2005 proved to be very successful. General accomplishments and challenges were:

Budget increase of 29% with additional grant moneys to cover increased budget;
Teachers provided supervision, instruction and activities 8 hours daily: 8:00am – 4:00pm in Reading, Math, Language Arts, Science, Character Development and Art.
Five classrooms served students entering grades 1-6 in the fall 2006.
Higher level of rigor with regard to curriculum, instruction, and program assessment;
Better staff orientation and team building, fostering better interaction between children and college-bound youth;
Increased DSHS license to serve 160 children in the School/Gym/Chapel facilities
An increased percentage of families registered with DSHS (43% from 39%) , but an overall decrease in the total number of qualifying families (31 from 34);
Decreased Enrollment of 73 from 88 in 2004 - in the 9 week program (June 20 – August 19) – due primarily to Prescott School District’s establishment of programming for the same student audience.
Lower average daily attendance as compared to that of 2004 (78% attendance rate vs. 83%).

Outputs & Outcomes
The anticipated outcomes of this program are threefold:

To sustain and improve students’ reading, writing, and math skills throughout the summer months and keep these academic skills fresh in their minds in order to facilitate a positive re-entry into school in the Fall;
To improve reading, writing, and conversational skills of all students, and in particular Spanish-speaking students, by strengthening vocabulary and reading comprehension; and
To provide a fun and engaging experience to participating children.

The following summarizes the activities for each specific subject area provided during the Day Camp program that seek to uphold these outcomes:

Math: Students reviewed basic math concepts through the use of games, hands on experiences and literature-based math activities. Concepts included: exploring the value of coins through the use of jelly bean sales, exploring the concept of a million and place value, logical reasoning and strategy using games, computer games linked to internet sites such as learning planet, mental math practice, skip counting, geometric shapes and vocabulary, tan grams, parameter, area, perimeter, and fractions.

Reading: Students were grouped according to ability with the input of our local and Prescott SD’s reading specialist. Students were given a balance of reading instruction and fun activities related to reading. They practiced comprehension and fluency using Read Naturally, learned about story elements as they made pictures, booklets and charts, practiced sight words in younger grades, worked on vocabulary development, rhymes and word families, and enjoyed being read to. With our partnership with the Mid-Columbia reading Foundation, second and fifth graders received specific instruction from the instructor the Foundation so generously provided.

Science: Students created a science lab with each unit they studied. Nearly every thing they did was a hands-on experience.They were encouraged to think and question with each activity. They studied the water cycle, mass and density, the human body, the senses, the solar system, and plants. They measured, observed, and discussed their observations.

Music: Students were taught about rhythm, note values and names, learned about a variety of instruments with a demonstration of such instruments as a saxophone, guitar, trombone, tuba, violin and piano. They made posters showing treble clef and bass clef symbols, sang songs, played percussion instruments and learned to play song flutes. Many of the lessons involved games and active learning.

Art: Students used a variety of mediums to learn about art technique and form. They studied lines, shapes, curves, positive and negative images, created collages, studied primary and secondary colors, warm and cool colors, and made their classroom a virtual art museum.

In addition to the 5 blocks of classroom time scheduled daily, children participated in activities during the afternoon that included:

Swimming at the Prescott public pool

Physical Activity in the gym. Activities included bowling, giant volleyball, ring toss, soccer, relay races, scoop ball, and obstacle course. During the hottest weeks water play was a fun outdoor experience.

In partnership with the Boy and Girl Scouts of Walla Walla, crafts activities were provided to participants.

Youth were organized into three groups based on age and rotated through these three separate afternoon activities three days per week. Thus, each child had the opportunity to participate in each activity once per week.

Each Friday a day-long field trip was taken that included trips to the Milton Freewater Water Park, Roller Skating in Richland, WSU-Tri-Cities’ science day, two trips to Carmike Cinemas to view two feature films, Bowling in Walla Walla, and the Whitman College Planetarium. As the finale of the Friday field trips, Day Camp traditionally takes children and their parents to Silverwood Theme Park. This year was no different. In total approximately 100 people went to Silverwood with Day Camp-provided transportation. Most other families with Day Camp youth chose to drive themselves, bringing the potential number of participants to approximately 200 – a great family-oriented success.

Evaluations
With the adoption of DIBLES testing at Vista Elementary school, Day Camp had the opportunity to work cooperatively with the school to assess the effects of Day Camp on reading readiness (per Outcomes #1 and #2, above). The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are a set of standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy development created by the University of Oregon (http://dibels.uoregon.edu). This test provides the Day Camp program with measurable and reliable evidence of impact on participating youth.

As part of the regular school assessment testing, all Vista Elementary youth were tested in late May, which allowed us to have a participant/non-participant evaluation. Results of the assessment can be found on the following page.

Overall, non-Day Camp-participating children showed lower scores on the DIBLES assessment, with median, September testing levels 25% lower than their May scores. This is an expected result, as studies have found children lose approximately one to two months of reading progress during the summer due to lack of on-going engagement.

Comparatively, 30% of Day Camp participants showed increased scores as compared to their May assessment. The median score for all Day Camp participants was 7.5% lower than their May scores.

These results indicate that children who participate in Day Camp come to school in the Fall better prepared than their counterparts, while some (30%) actually come to school with higher reading scores. As this is the first year of such testing, and the control group is so small, it will be important to continue this evaluation over the years to validate such indicators.

Budget Summary
Below is the budget summary for Day Camp 2005 as of September 16th, 2005. Total expenditures were budgeted to be approximately 20% greater than in 2004. Actual expenditures were 30% greater than in the previous year, resulting in better services, staffing and opportunities for the program. This budget only reflects direct costs to the program and does not include Snake River Housing in-kind contributions (time and efforts).

As evidenced, Day Camp managed to eek out a balanced budget, though the program overspent its budget by $5,000. Seventy-five percent of the overspending was specifically associated with the budgeted line items of ‘school supplies’ and ‘curriculum and development.’. It should be noted that these over-expenditures were permitted due to new funds being available to Day Camp through the 21st Century grant. Additionally, within these expenses are Vista Elementary purchases for the Fall academic year.

Total per child cost increased this year due to the fact that enrollment numbers were lower than projected. The 2005 budget assumed a modest increase in enrollment, which would have resulted in a 16% reduction in per-child costs.

Conclusion
The 2005 year was a wonderful success, measured in part by the program’s ability to address the ‘problem’ areas cited in the 2004 annual report:

Day Camp has established a highly valid and accepted assessment system
Greater clarity was given to the administrative structure
Better coordination of and training to staff was provided
Chapel time was further developed
The orientation training provided the program with a uniform, fair and enforced discipline policy

Staffing was a success this year as Day Camp had the strongest team of instructors and teaching assistants in its history. Staff took to their duties with professionalism and enthusiasm, often seen playing with the children long after their ‘official’ day had ended. As in past years, our hope will be that they return for the next year.