Marcia A. B. Delcourt, PhD Western Connecticut State University

1. The Early College Academy:Preparing Disadvantaged Middle School Students for Acceptance to Competitive High Schools Marcia A. B. Delcourt, PhD Western Connecticut State University Coordinator, EdD in Instructional Leadership Program delcourtm@wcsu.edu

2. Rationale • The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 delineates the need for higher standards and morerigorous academic programs that prepare larger numbers of students for higher education. • The Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Education Act has a goal to identify and develop talents of underserved students with high potential.

3. Achievement Gap • The disparity in academic performance between groups of students WHY? • Educational level of parents • Language spoken in the home • Not wanting/caring to achieve at a higher level • Not knowing that you can achieve at a higher level

4. Students in Grades 5-8 in 3 Middle Schools • 474/600 (79%) of students were below proficiency in ELA & Math • 74% to 87% Latino, 13%to 20% African American • 97% to 99% free/reduced-lunch eligible

5. BHSEC • Grades 9-12 (513 students) • 27% free/reduced price lunch • Black 17%, Hispanic 17%, Asian 11%, White 55% • Student suspensions 0%

6. BHSEC • A program in which students complete high school and approximately 2 years of college in 4 years. • Entry is based on state and city achievement tests in mathematics and language arts, a written application, and an interview. • All new students participate in a week-long Institute for Writing and Thinking program.

7. Context • Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) is one of NYC’s most rigorous high schools. • More than 4,000 8th graders apply for 135 places in the 9th grade at the BHSEC. • Not one 8th grade student from BHSEC’s nearby Lower East Side neighborhood had been admitted to the BHSEC. • Although there are middle school students with high potential in nearby schools, they have had little or no access to BHSEC or other academically competitive high schools.

8. How do we get our students form here to go to school there?

9. Students with Gifted Potential • 126/600 (21%) students in Grades 5-8 from 3 schools near the BHSEC were at/above proficiency (level 3 or 4 out of 4 in ELA and/or Math) • Teacher recommendation • Early College Academy (ECA) Interview • Motivation to participate in a Saturday/Summer program

10. Literature • Need for academic improvement for G/T students from low SES environments (Delcourt, 2007; Ford, Moore, & Milner, 2005) • Self-regulation Skills (Zimmerman, 1989, 1998) • Habits of mind in secondary school students (Velez, 2009)

11. Program Description • The Early College Academy (ECA) at BHSEC was founded to prepare high potential low income students from a variety of cultural populations in grades 5-8 to • Improve achievement in mathematics, science, and writing • Develop confidence, self-regulation skills, and habits of mind • Apply to and be accepted at competitive high schools in New York City • The program also assisted teachers to differentiate the curriculum to bring a variety of new skills to all students. • Parents/guardians were invited to attend monthly workshops that helped them to learn about community resources and assist their children in the high school application process.

12. Methodology • Post-test control group design • Mathematics achievement (state test) • English Language Arts Achievement (state test) • Pre-post test design • Self-regulation (evaluator-developed, validity & reliability) • Self-confidence in self-regulation skills (evaluator-developed, validity & reliability) • Habits of Mind (teacher-developed) • Descriptive statistics and Qualitative Interviews • Percent identified as potentially gifted

13. Instruments: ecaprogram.pbworks.com State Assessments in Achievement English Language Arts Mathematics Student Perceptions Self-Confidence in School-Related Tasks Teacher Perceptions of their Students Self-Regulation for School-Related Tasks Humanities Rubric Science Rubric Mathematics Rubric Weekly Ratings of Academic Tasks

14. Self-regulation: 43-item survey • Academic Skills • Planning and Management Skills • Comprehension and Summarization Skills • Note Taking Skills • Test Preparation Skills • Writing Skills

15. Academic Skills

16. Instruments: ECA Humanities Rubric

17. Focus of the Program Students • Develop and enhance Academic skills in mathematics, science and language arts • Assist students in the competitive high school application process Teachers • Provide regular classroom teachers with skills to differentiate the curriculum for their higher achieving students Parents • Assist parents with knowing a variety of community resources

18. Application to Competitive High Schools • Content Knowledge • Humanities, mathematics, science • How to Skills • Learned how to take Exams, complete applications, and respond to interviews • Interpersonal Skills • Dressing appropriately, shaking hands at the beginning and end of a conversation, looking in the eyes of the person with whom you are speaking, being patient when asked a question that is unexpected

19. Sample

20. Achievement: Year 3 • English Language Arts • ECA: MEAN=670, n=52 • Comparison Group: Mean=664, n=50 • p<.05 • Mathematics • ECA: Mean=691, n=52 • Comparison Group: Mean=674, n=50 • p<.001

21. Results

23. Table 12Students Who Applied to and Were Accepted at Competitive High Schools in 2007-2008 Note: Since approximately 135 students are accepted into BHSEC ‘s ninth grade each year, the 3-4 students selected from this program each year amounts to 3% of the ninth grade class each year. Forty-five percent (10/22) of the total of eighth grade students in the ECA program were accepted to competitive high schools.

24. How do you learn best? When are you most confident in school? The students stated that they felt smart at knowing information they could use in their regular classrooms. • He likes math when it is a challenge. At Bard he learned how to use parentheses, how to make a problem shorter, how to use positive and negative numbers. • “At Bard, they gave us High School and college work. I felt smart. My mom, dad, and the rest of my family [were] proud of me. I felt good about myself.”

25. What do you learn in the special program that helps you learn in school? The students stated that extended program activities helped them in the regular classroom. • “If you have a problem, you learn how to solve it. When you have a problem in school, you now have the experience in solving problems. I think that is important.” • “I never really liked poems. I was never a poem fan. Now, [after being at Bard], I think of poems by myself. I think of poems in my head and put them on paper.”

26. Do you think school is easy or difficult? Why? Students learned better when they had more direct feedback. • “It is easier here. It was better in Bard. At Bard, if you do the wrong thing, they help us. Here, if we need help, the teacher asks us to wait until she’s finished.” • “At Bard they pay more attention to you because there are smaller classes. We learn better in smaller classes.”

27. Students Liked a Challenge • “Here we don’t really write about everything. It was better to write more at Bard. In our school we don’t write enough.” • “I think they should make reading harder for me.” • “Bard was hard, but it was a good challenge.”

28. Students learned about topics that were not being taught at their own schools. • “At Bard we had science and a science teacher and it was cool. I didn’t start thinking about science until Bard.” • “I just like working with numbers: how fractions become wholes; how numbers are everywhere around us.”

29. What would you like to change about school? “Change the fighting. It’s already the beginning of the year and the 6th grade is already in trouble. The 7th and 8th grade are picking on the 6th grade.”

30. Parents and teachers • Monthly parent program • Teacher PD regarding differentiation

31. Needed Supports • School liaisons • Constant communication • Parent support • Counseling • Academic rigor

32. Conclusions • We learned that students and staff from two very different environments, three low achieving middle schools and a top ranked high school-early college, can work out a plan so that the former can become feeder schools for the latter. • It was also reinforced that high expectations can move students in the direction to become highly motivated, achieving learners.

33. President Obama Singles Out Bard Early College Program as Model for the Future
 NEW YORK, N.Y.– President BarackObama, in a speech given yesterday (07/16/09) in New York City marking the centennial of the NAACP, cited the Bard High School Early College as an innovative model for the future of secondary and higher education. In a passage on addressing approaches to improving education in America, Obama said: “We should also explore innovative approaches being pursued here in New York City; innovations like Bard High School Early College and Medgar Evers College Preparatory School that are challenging students to complete high school and earn a free associate's degree or college credit in just four years.”

34. http://www.bard.edu/bhsec • http://eca.bard.edu • http://ecaprogram.pbworks.com/FrontPage

35. Founded on the belief that many young people are ready and eager to do serious college work at age 16, Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) was created by Bard College in collaboration with the New York City Department of Education as an alternative to the traditional high school. • Located in lower Manhattan, it enables highly motivated students to earn an associate of arts degree as well as a high school diploma in four years. • Since opening in September 2001, BHSEC has celebrated seven graduations, with over 750 students receiving a Bard College Associate in Arts degree as well as a New York State Regents high school diploma. • More than 95 percent of these graduates successfully move on to leading four-year colleges and universities, and the majority of these students complete their four-year college degree within three years. • BHSEC II partners with the New York Academy of Sciences to provide additional curricular and extra-curricular opportunities in the sciences.

36. ECA Program Goals • identify underserved students, with gifted potential • strengthen capacity of students for self-regulation • create a culture to develop habits of mind among students that will prepare them to succeed at competitive high schools and early colleges • prepare students to emerge from 8th grade with confidence about how they learn • improve students’ academic achievement as measured by standardized test scores • increase the number of underserved students applying to and accepted by the top public high schools

37. The Bard Institute for Writing and Thinking (IWT) emphasizes the role of language in thinking, building habits of mind in students through • reading, listening, reflecting, creating dialogue, considering alternatives, and engaging in collaborative work, etc. • Gifted/talented students need to develop habits of mind in preparation for admission to top high schools as well as college.