"Overlooked gems" is the term used in gifted education to describe high-potential, low-income students who are unable to excel because of significant barriers in their homes, environments, and educational systems. To address these barriers, educators have offered enrichment and other types of talent development programs to this at-risk…

Ongoing efforts across the U.S. to encourage K-12 students to consider science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers have been motivated by concerns that the STEM pipeline is shrinking because of declining student enrollment and increasing rates of retirement in industry. The Enrichment Experiences in Engineering (E[superscript…

The Wallace Foundation is funding a multiyear demonstration project to determine whether voluntary, district summer learning programs can stem summer learning loss for low-income students. Six districts--Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Duval County (Florida), Pittsburgh, and Rochester, New York--were selected for the demonstration project and…

We report the results of a study focused on identifying and articulating an ''epistemic foundation'' underlying a pre-collegiate focus on engineering. We do so in the context of UTeach"Engineering" (UTE), a program supported in part by funding by the National Science Foundation and designed to develop a model approach to address the…

Teaching entrepreneurship--how to create, grow and run a business or organization--is one potential means to increase college and career readiness skills. Learning how to start a business can improve critical thinking, communication and collaboration (Gallagher, Stepien, & Rosenthal, 1992; Hmelo, 1998), which are key qualities for academic as…

Early college schools are part of a national initiative to align high school and college through a rigorous, college-prep curriculum coupled with high expectations and comprehensive student supports. The schools provide all students with direct experience, preparation, and support in taking college classes through a proficiency-based curriculum…

In this important resource, Dr. Fleming (a noted expert in the field of minority retention) draws on educational evaluations she has developed in the course of her distinguished career. This book analyzes the common factors and the role institutional characteristics play in minority student retention to show what really works in increasing…