There is a disparity in the number of adults from minority populations employed in STEM careers. In order to increase the interest of at-risk high school students in the STEM field in Queens, NY, an immersive summer biotechnology boot camp was developed. Fifty-five predominantly minority and female students completed the summer boot camp over a…

Adopting an asset-based and resilience-building framework, the present study examines the effects of out-of-school activities on advancing the academic achievement, leadership skills, and service orientation of youth of color placed at risk who attended one of over 60 independent urban middle schools that follow the NativityMiguel model of…

Gifted education today faces a significant challenge in reaching equity as well as excellence. This is reflected in the disproportionate underrepresentation of children from Black, Hispanic, Native, and low-income families. This pattern of underrepresentation within programs for students with gifts and talents is pervasive and pernicious and…

Summer bridge programs are supposed to connect a graduating high school senior's summer to their first semester in college, easing the transition away from home and into a university setting. Although research is plentiful on the programs, assessments regarding the overall effectiveness of such programs have been mixed (e.g., Cabrera, Miner, and…

Retention and graduation rates for engineering disciplines are significantly lower than desired, and research literature offers many possible causes. Engineering learning communities provide the opportunity to study relationships among specific causes and to develop and evaluate activities designed to lessen their impact. This paper details an…

The Peer Enabled Restructured Classroom (PERC) program is a peer-teaching model developed by the Math and Science Partnership in New York City (MSPinNYC) to help underachieving and historically at-risk urban students succeed in math and science courses. Although preliminary success of this program has been substantial, there has not been a…

In recent years policymakers have increasingly looked to Extended Learning Time (ELT) as a means of improving student outcomes. As a result, some school districts have increased academic time for students by adding time to the school day or days to the school year. In other communities, schools and community-based organizations have partnered to…

This article discusses College Summit, a nonprofit effort centered around the premise that there is a sizable number of students who are more capable of college academics than their test scores and grade point averages suggest. Its four-day summer sessions are focused not on ramping up students' academic performance but in mining students'…

More emphasis should be placed on what can be done to help encourage and prepare students choosing STEM-based majors to enter college, be successful, and graduate. Summer bridge programs can provide pre-college experiences to help attract and retain future STEM majors by exposing them to experiences they would encounter in college math and science…

University researchers, teacher candidates, language and technology instructors, student learners, and families from diverse backgrounds partnered in an invitational teaching/learning experience--middle school student learners teaching their VIPs (very important persons) how to create stories and construct digital movies with reference to their…

The Geosciences Institute for Research and Education at the University of Michigan-Dearborn has been an example of a successful and effective model in increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in the geosciences. The program emphasizes involving middle school and at-risk high school students from the Detroit area public schools,…

This report summarizes activities in the AISD state-funded Optional Extended Year program for the 2003-2004 school year.