Overcoming Race and Poverty High Achievement Excellence Gaps in High School Science Education

To identify one school district’s geographically, racially and economically bifurcated high achievement excellence gaps in high school science education; to design intervention strategies to address the identified excellence gaps; and to implement and measure the effectiveness of the intervention strategies over a three year period. Intervention strategies included increased parental involvement, problem based pedagogy, teacher research internships, high school student research internships, and modeling and mentoring by university professors and graduate students. In the district’s nine north county high schools, the 2010 average SAT score was 1637, economically disadvantaged students percentage was 18%, and STEM underrepresented minorities percentage was 32%. While in the five south county high schools, the 2010 average SAT score was 1245, economically disadvantaged students percentage was 71%, and STEM underrepresented minorities percentage was 97%. Through effective problem based pedagogy and partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Center for Education Integrating Science Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC), a 97% African American, 54% economically disadvantaged south Fulton County high school was able to go from one project placing in the state science fair from 2003-2006 to six projects placing in the state science fair from 2007-2010,  having representative selection to the 2008 Governor’s Honors Program in Chemistry, 1^st Place in the 2009 National Society of Black Engineers Science Fair, and a 2010 National Biology Teachers Science Fair Award. In the same 2007-2010 time period, the school developed the only high school chapter in America of Engineers Without Borders, and based on results of their research internship at the Georgia Institute of Technology, implemented a solar cooker project in Arusha, Tanzania. The number of students participating in and passing Advanced Placement (AP) science and math courses over the three year period of 2007-2010 increased so much so that the College Board designated the south Fulton County high school an AP STEM school in 2010. The pedagogy and partnership programs that led to these achievements will be explained in this poster presentation.