COORDINATING EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS FOR SUSTAINED ACADEMIC SUCCESS

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

This planning grant is designed to serve as the foundation for a full-scale proposal to the IERI. During planning grant the project will run a pilot study which begins to integrate the existing activities in order to collect preliminary data on barriers to vertical integration, and will work with a second geographical location as a site for studying the replication of the vertical integration model system. The major goal of the long term research project is to identify the institutional and social arrangements necessary for the successful vertical integration of proven after-school educational K-12 programs. Currently, these programs operate independently at the pre-school, elementary school, middle and high school levels. Our goal is to bring together an interdisciplinary team to design a vertically integrated system of such activities and to develop a set of methodological tools which will be useful for studying and integrating after-school programs more generally. This vertical integration will constitute an effective pipeline for educational achievement in SMET. Such integration is necessary for the development of individual students, for the mutual support of after-school and school activities, and for sustaining these design efforts.