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continued from page 1 Education reform
Project Opening Doors successMany of the goals of Connecticut’s high school reform plan and new CSUS admission standards are also central to CBIA’s Project Opening Doors (POD), a program initiated in October 2007 to increase the number of Advanced Placement (AP) math, science, and English courses offered in the state’s high schools and the number of minority and low-income students who enroll in and pass those rigorous courses. The approach behind POD is based on considerable research that shows that participation in AP coursework is predictive of academic success in college. Funded in Connecticut and five other states by a grant from the National Math and Science Initiative, the program emphasizes enhanced teacher training, teacher incentives, student scholarships, student prep sessions, and master teacher mentoring. So far, POD has been a resounding success:
“The AP test results leave no doubt about the efficacy of Project Opening Doors,” notes Rathgeber. “We’re extremely pleased with the data.” So too are the principals of participating schools, where the program has created an electric atmosphere around learning. “POD has provided more than just resources,” says Troy Hopkins, principal at Coventry High School. “This [program] has sparked a desire in both staff and students to challenge themselves more than ever. Parents are excited that students are seeing more of a connection between their high school classes and future success.” Robyn Apicella, principal at Wilby High School in Waterbury, agrees, though she notes that initially teachers who were asked to participate in POD expressed some reservations. “However,” she says, “as in-depth training, professional development, and financial and student support emerged, skepticism gave way to fervent enthusiasm.” Although non-traditional AP students at Wilby were concerned about their ability to handle the tough coursework, any trepidation didn’t last long. “Student enthusiasm has been overwhelming,” says Apicella. “Additional classes had to be created for AP English, calculus, and biology to support increased student requests. New AP courses in environmental science and statistics have been offered this year. AP physics is planned for next year, and we will continue to explore opportunities to expand the program. We are very excited about the opportunities and the support CBIA and Project Opening Doors have afforded our students.” Narrowing achievement gapsCBIA’s Dr. Cam Vautour, POD president, is particularly pleased by the showing of minority students in POD’s Cohort 1 schools. Those schools represent 12% of the state’s high school minority enrollment and had a 26% increase in the number of minority students passing AP math, science, and English exams—compared with 2.3% statewide and 13% nationally. Cohort 1 schools also had a 104% increase in the number of minority students taking the exams. “The test scores prove that more rigorous coursework and a multifaceted teacher and student support network can improve student achievement among underrepresented students in AP classes, giving them the knowledge and skills to succeed in college and in the workforce,” says Vautour. “POD clearly demonstrates that high-quality support services can make a difference.” The program’s positive impact was also evident among low-income students. Although the Cohort 1 schools represent only 11% of Connecticut’s low-income high school enrollment, they accounted for 35% of all passing AP math, science, and English exam scores by low-income students in the state and 43% of all such exams taken by low-income students. POD schools had a 10% increase over last year in the number of low-income students passing AP math, science, and English exams and a 48% increase in the number of low-income students taking the exams. “POD has proven in just its first full school year that it can help address the state’s achievement gap in education,” says Rathgeber. “And the program is growing to help more students graduate with the advanced-level math and science courses they need to be successful in the future.” A narrowing of the achievement gap between Connecticut’s affluent school districts and their less affluent counterparts is also evident from this year’s CAPT results, despite the overall downturn in scores. The gains are the result of SDE efforts to turn around 15 urban “partner” school districts identified under the federal No Child Left Behind Act as in need of improvement. The SDE has worked with partner districts to craft improvement plans following an external education audit of each district. “Even with the slight downturn statewide in this year’s CAPT results,” says McQuillan, “many of our partner school districts demonstrated gains over last year that outstripped statewide averages.” The SDE’s partner districts that showed improved CAPT scores include four districts with schools in Project Opening Doors’ Cohort 1—East Hartford, Hartford, New London, and Stamford. $1.2 million grant supports PODIf, as Hopkins and Apicella suggest, Project Opening Doors has had little difficulty attracting underrepresented students to rigorous Advanced Placement classes, that task is likely to get even easier in the future, thanks to a three-year, $1.2 million National Science Foundation grant awarded to CBIA in August. CBIA will use the ITEST (Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers) grant to engage and motivate ninth- and tenth-graders from POD schools in rigorous STEM subjects—science, technology, engineering, and math—with the goal of strengthening the pipeline of students enrolling in POD’s AP classes as juniors. “CBIA is very excited to receive this grant and continue to help close educational achievement gaps and increase the number of students prepared for high-tech, high-demand jobs in Connecticut,” says Resnick. She adds that the grant was highly competitive, with CBIA receiving one of only 35 awards from a pool of 254 proposals submitted nationally. ITEST addresses concerns about the growing demand for—and anticipated shortage of—workers with strong STEM skills by supporting projects that use cutting-edge technology and social networking tools to build students’ interest in and mastery of STEM subjects as well as their understanding of how academics connects with real-world issues. Partners in the ITEST grant include POD school districts, the Connecticut State Department of Education, the Connecticut Science Center, Central Connecticut State University, and the Connecticut Community Colleges’ College of Technology. How cool is this!The ITEST grant will enable more than 1,000 teens traditionally underrepresented in AP and STEM courses to participate in “How Cool Is This! Cyberchallenge,” a program based on a series of industry-developed, real-world problems for interschool teams of students to solve using a variety of technology-based educational tools. Cyberchallenge was launched in September at the Connecticut Science Center with East Hartford, New Britain, and Waterbury schools. Student teams will spend several months during the school year solving problems identified by four Connecticut companies: United Technologies Corp. (UTC), Pfizer, General Electric, and Northeast Utilities. Sample Cyberchallenge problems might ask, How and why is an error in math an exponentially dangerous problem in outer space? or Which scientific principles are applied in the design of an aircraft wing? As the student teams work to solve their problems, they will meet at vacation academies and Engineering Challenges hosted by local colleges and universities and stay in touch via video conferencing. Their final projects will be interactive multimedia presentations that demonstrate their solutions to the Cyberchallenge problems. In the spring, the teams will reconvene at the Science Center to conduct their presentations before a panel of experts from the four partner companies. “As some of the largest science and technology-based employers in Connecticut, our four industry partners have a genuine interest in developing the next generation of scientists and engineers,” says project consultant Lauren Weisberg Kaufman, former CBIA vice president of education and training. “We are dedicated to helping solve the problem of underrepresented student populations in STEM fields,” says Toni Hoover, Ph.D., senior vice president, Pfizer Global Research and Development, and director, Groton/New London Laboratories. “We have a number of scientists who will be excellent role models and mentors for the students in POD schools. Pfizer is an ardent supporter of Project Opening Doors’ mission, and we’re confident that the ITEST initiative will help more students succeed in their AP classes.” The ITEST grant will provide funding for students to visit major Connecticut employers during the school year and host representatives from those companies at their schools. It will also help pay for laptops, webcams, and software to support students as they work on their problems and communicate with teammates from participating schools. In addition, the grant will cover cybertechnology training for teachers (to be conducted by EASTCONN, one of the state’s six Regional Education Service Centers) and faculty externships—experiential learning opportunities at Connecticut companies to provide teachers with work experience outside the classroom so that they can more readily create lessons that align academics with workplace needs. Academies make it realThe principles of academic rigor, student engagement, student support, and real-world relevance are among the underpinnings of the ITEST initiative, Project Opening Doors, and Connecticut’s high school reform plan. Those principles are also embodied in career academies like the Academy of Engineering and Green Technology (AoEGT) in Hartford and the academies at Wilby and Crosby high schools in Waterbury. AoEGT is one of three career academies at Hartford Public High School. Designed with help from CBIA and an $89,900 startup grant from UTC, the Academy offers integrated academic and career training in engineering, environmental science, and advanced manufacturing for 380 students. Last June, AoEGT successfully completed its first year of operation and was recognized in July as an Academy of Engineering Partnership official site and a National Academy Foundation (NAF) open academy. CBIA has also been instrumental in the development of two career academies at Wilby High School and has begun working with two others at Crosby High School. “Our primary goal is to help connect the academies’ curricula to the workplace,” says Dayl Walker, program manager for CBIA’s Education Foundation. “When the students understand that what they’re learning in school is useful in the real world, they become more engaged and work harder.” According to Hartford Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Steven Adamowski, the small-academy model on which the AoEGT (and other career academies) is based has been largely responsible for the marked increases in Hartford’s high school graduation rate—from 29% in 2007 to 36% in 2008 to 42% in 2009. Those increases are consistent with the reduced dropout rates typically seen in smaller learning communities. “Our improved graduation rates are attributable to the district’s evolution from large comprehensive high schools to smaller, theme-based academies that offer students more individualized instruction,” says Adamowski. “We have also made changes in curriculum and instruction to focus on preparing students for college admission. Higher graduation rates are what happens when you combine personalization and support with raised standards and expectations.” The AoEGT, like all NAF academies, is required to have an advisory board composed primarily of business leaders, paid internships for students, and a rigorous curriculum. At AoEGT, Project Lead The Way (PLTW) pre-engineering courses are a big part of that rigorous curriculum. PLTW courses—compulsory in all NAF engineering academies—provide project-based learning and opportunities for students to work in teams to apply math and science to real-world problems. Lisa Szewczul, vice president of environment, health & safety at UTC’s Hamilton Sundstrand and chair of AoEGT’s advisory board, believes that the real-world connection is critical to AoEGT’s success at motivating and engaging students. “Connecting students to business and industry through company visits, internships, and project-based learning helps them understand how their class work applies to tasks they’ll actually be facing out in the working world,” Szewczul says. “And it demonstrates in a very compelling way how their success in school can translate into exciting career opportunities. Preparing young people for success in the real world is what it’s all about.”
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