top
The Skills Reinforcement Project (SRP) was designed to increase the basic skills of disadvantaged and minority youth in mathematics and language arts. Forty-five minority and economically disadvantaged 6th graders participated in a 110-hr. academic program on Saturdays and at a residential college during the summer. When compared with 46 students of similar SES, sex, and ethnicity, the SRP participants made statistically greater gains on pre- and posttest measures of math. Although not statistically significant, the gains made on the verbal measures were greater than those made by the comparison group. Lynch, S. J., & Mills, C. J. (1993). Identifying and preparing disadvantaged minority youth for high level academic achievement. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 18, 66-76. This research involved 36 students identified as "educationally disadvantaged" who scored above average on standardized achievement tests and completed a program to reinforce their academic skills in either language arts or mathematics and 28 control students who received no instructional intervention. Data indicate a significant effect of the instructional intervention for both achievement and aptitude test scores in language arts and math. Gains in math were significantly greater than in language arts. After instructional intervention, the majority of subjects were eligible and academically qualified for challenging gifted-talented programs. Mills, C. J., Stork, E. J., & Krug, D. (1992). Recognition and development of academic talent in educationally disadvantaged students. Exceptionality, 3, 165-180. top
From 2000 to 2003, the Center for Talented Youth’s Goldman Sachs Scholars Program provided full scholarships for 403 underrepresented students based on geographic location and level of need. These students were evaluated prior to, and after attending summer programs. Overall, these students showed high aspirations for their educational future. Even as early as 7th grade, 100 percent of these outreach students planned to attend college. These students also placed a high importance on: getting good grades, going to a good college, understanding what they learn, and enjoying learning. Such findings are consistent with past research involving the general population of CTY students. CTY-Goldman Sachs scholars were also asked a myriad of questions designed to evaluate their academic self-concept by assessing how well they felt they would do in various subjects. Almost all CTY-Goldman Sachs Scholars felt that they would do either “very well” or “well” the following year in math, science, and English/language arts. Congruent with the previous finding, the vast majority of CTY-Goldman Sachs Scholars felt that they would be good at learning something new in math, science, and English/language arts. top
Students in summer programs are not systematically graded or evaluated on the basis of test scores. To provide evidence of student learning, we asked instructors to create and administer assessments at the beginning and at the end of their courses. These assessments were tailored to each instructor’s syllabus and goals for the course. This pre- and post-testing procedure provided a measure of achievement gain. A specific interest was to examine the gains made by students in under-represented groups who received scholarships. These students may have started in courses with lower scores (i.e., less knowledge about the topic), but they made similar gains when compared to other students in their classes who did not receive a scholarship. Ablard Mickenberg, K.E. (2006). The value of pre-post assessment for improving instruction and learning: Five years of research, (Tech. Rep. No. 35). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University, Center for Talented Youth. top
The Next Generation Venture Fund, which began in 2004, as an expansion of the Goldman Sachs Scholars program, also targets under-represented gifted students. The program brings these under-represented children to the highest levels of academic achievement through participation in rigorous summer programs, year-round distance education courses, specialized weekend courses, a mentoring program and year-round academic counseling. Preliminary results indicate that these under-represented students are performing just as well as their peers in the CTY classroom, as rated by CTY instructors. In addition, NGVF students tend to take as many honors and AP courses in their home schools, when compared to a control group. NGVF students are more likely to be accelerated in their courses and to participate in supplemental academic coursework than their gifted and talented peers. top
The ultimate goal of both the Goldman Sachs Scholars program and the Next Generation Venture Fund program is to prepare under-represented students for admission to highly selective colleges. Results obtained from the original Goldman Sachs scholars who are now of college age indicate that the program was successful. Almost all of these students who responded to our survey are enrolled in a college program, and the majority of students are attending prestigious universities such as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. 66.7% are attending schools ranked as either Highly or Most Competitive, as compared to only 48.1% of the control group. The mean rating of schools attended by students in the control group was significantly lower than that of the Goldman Sachs scholars. Last updated 8/08/2008 | 
