Increasing minority involvement in STEM courses.

Herman, Karl J. ; McClellan, Matthew D.

Five years ago, a small group of teachers--including the two of us--at West High School in Hazlewood, Missouri, sat down and had a frank discussion to answer the question: "Why does our honors/AP-level course enrollment not reflect our overall student demographics?" As a result of our deliberations, the idea for West Preparatory Academy was born. The concept seemed simple: create a group to promote academic opportunities and provide support for our underrepresented groups. Since this type of program had never been clone at our school, we set out to determine how other schools worked to combat this issue.

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Our Plan

Later that year, this same group of teachers attended the College Board's A Dream Deferred,[TM] a conference designed to help African-American students succeed in school and in life. There we learned what other schools were doing to wrestle with minority underenrollment in honors/AP-level STEM courses. We returned, formulated a plan and then went to the school principal for approval for West Prep. We wanted to begin small with one demographic group and then grow in size as time and interest grew. For our pilot group we chose to start with African-American males in the class of 2014. There were eight teachers on board and we now needed to present this to members of our faculty.

They approved.

We asked faculty members who had direct involvement with our pilot group demographic to nominate students who would be able to handle honors/AP-level courses as upperclassmen. We were looking for students who had the capability to succeed but sometimes chose not to for various reasons--our so-called "diamonds in the rough." Thirty-four students were nominated. All applied and were accepted into the program. We could tell that they were curious as to what we were about.

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The First Year

Our first meeting with students and parents took place one evening at the start of the spring 2011 semester--at the beginning of the second semester of the students' freshmen year. We showed them the statistics of our school's demographics in our more rigorous courses, and we made it clear our mission was to change these demographics. They understood our mission and immediately pledged their support to the program, realizing how important our cause was.

Not long after this introductory meeting, West Prep held its first official weekly meeting. We brought in African-American seniors to share the struggles they had faced in some of the more rigorous courses, and it proved to be an inspiring time for our students. They were ready to start down the path that would help them succeed in college.

Since West Prep's inception, we have received grant assistance from the Missouri Partnership for Educational Renewal. As part of the grant, institutions are paired up with a department at the University of Missouri. Our partner was the university's department of Academic Retention Services. We set up an all-day field trip for our freshmen to be introduced to a college and learn about admissions, financial aid and overall college life.

One week later, staff from the counseling department joined us to help the students enroll in courses for their sophomore year. In outlining the purpose of the group, one of the things we made clear was that courses involving problem solving and critical thinking would be essential for completing AP/honors courses. These courses included higher-level math, science and Project Lead the Way (PLTW) classes--courses that had once seemed out of reach.

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Besides our weekly meetings during the school day, we also offered after-school tutoring on Tuesdays. Once, one of the students named Korey had little to do and noticed I had binary notation on my white board. He was intrigued by it and wanted me to teach him how to manipulate it. He found it was easy and soon asked to change his schedule to take PLTW Digital Electronics his sophomore year.

And he was not the only one to change his schedule. He convinced some of his friends to do the same!

At the end of our first year together we held a celebration for students, parents, administrators and our collegiate partners to celebrate and discuss our success--namely, that the students had lifted their GPAs from the previous semester and that they had enrolled in new courses they had never dreamed of. The faculty participants observed that we had started something special and worth continuing. Everyone was excited and committed to the program for the next academic year.

Year Two

The students were now sophomores and thoroughly enjoying their new classes. Besides Digital Electronics, students had enrolled in PLTW Principles of Engineering, aerospace engineering, Introduction to Engineering Design and the new PLTW Biomedical Science career pathway. In addition to these, some students were taking courses such as Honors Geometry and pre-AP Chemistry. These courses were new to them and were difficult, and we discussed this in our weekly meetings.

Since our faculty group consisted of teachers from almost every curricular area, we were able to help students excel in the wide variety of disciplines they were undertaking. We talked about success in general, as well as some of the challenges to them succeeding in school.

And the answers we received we would never have imagined. Multiple students related that the reason they did not take certain classes or participate in certain activities was for fear they might succeed at it. The fear comes from what lies after that endeavor. If they were successful at one thing, then the expectation existed that they would continue to be successful. They felt it was better not to try and therefore not have to deal with the continued expectation to succeed.

We were shocked.

Coupled with the fear of always having to succeed, they felt it was better not to try than to fail. I asked for examples and they brought up video games. They explained that they will watch someone play a game for a while. If they didn't have 100 percent confidence the person could be beaten, they would not play against them.

And unfortunately, this mentality invaded all aspects of their lives.

Another issue that arose was peer pressure. If one student felt that he could not succeed in a course, he encouraged his friends not to take it either. As teachers and faculty, we realized these attitudes had to be dealt with. Our group provided the peer support and faculty mentoring to deal with the peer pressure and the expectation to succeed.

The second half of the pilot group's second year, the students were making good progress. It was now time to grow our program. We asked the faculty to nominate African-American students--male and female--from the class of 2015. We took the experiences we had gained from working with the original members and carried those into the new group.

This new cohort continued in the tradition that was established by the original pilot group. They went on a college visit and participated in student forums. In our weekly meetings we discussed issues that came up throughout the school year. Students once again met with the school's counseling staff and enrolled in more rigorous courses for their sophomore year. Our collegiate partnership with the University of Missouri continued and our support from the district administration grew.

It was time to bring more focus to the group. One of the activities we did to help them understand the impact their choices would make on their futures was to have them read the book. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, by Wes Moore. It's the dramatic story of two boys with the same name, who grew up just blocks apart, who ended up leading very different lives. One ended up in prison, while the other ended up becoming a Navy SEAL and a Rhodes Scholar. We wanted them to see that every choice they made now--whether good or bad--would have an impact on their futures.

Our second year ended with a wonderful opportunity for some of our sophomore members. Korey, the boy mentioned previously who was intrigued by Digital Electronics, brought in a flyer for the Minority Introduction to Technology and Engineering (MITE) summer program--a week-long summer camp hosted by the Missouri Institute of Science & Technology. We invited the camp's director to explain the details of participating in the camp. Eleven students applied, and all eleven were accepted, with some being given financial merit awards. Thanks to our grant funds, we were able to cover the cost to send these students without putting a burden on their households. The boys returned invigorated, and the director was quite impressed with their performance.

Year Three

Our initial pilot group was still going strong. Students continued to take the more rigorous career pathway choices. Another group of incoming freshmen was added to the academy, and more teachers came on board to assist.

By this time we were seeing results from the program with the now juniors and sophomores. PLTW minority enrollment numbers were up (especially for African-American students) in both the Pathways to Engineering and Biomedical Sciences programs. Within our group and in our school, students could be heard counseling their friends to take these courses, even encouraging their peers that they could also be successful.

Enrollment of African-American students in Digital Electronics was higher than in previous years because of Korey, who had taken Digital Electronics his sophomore year.

In addition to the PLTW courses, members of our pilot group took AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Government and AP Physics. One of them had the highest score on the AP Physics exam on more than one occasion! At the conclusion of our third year, all the pilot members are now enrolled in at least one honors/AP-level course for their senior year.

Our soon-to-be seniors have now had the opportunity to take the ACT once, but they're not settling for their initial scores. Instead, they're using them as a baseline.

This past summer, the pilot group spent time researching colleges and other career options. And in the coming year we will work on college applications and strengthening their skill sets.

We Are West Prep!

Our members are proud to be a part of West Prep, and its popularity is growing. We have experienced growing pains as we have worked through the process of preparing students to succeed in college and in life. The biggest piece of our success is that the students know we genuinely care about them. We have created relationships that support and nurture academic growth, as well as life in general. Sometimes our lives make it difficult to meet as often as we need to, but we work hard to stay focused and on task.

The way we run West Preparatory Academy is perhaps not the best approach; however, it is our approach. We have experienced success and the students are maturing. As teachers we are glad that we had this opportunity to be an integral part of these young lives.

We are teachers, parents, students, community members and administrators. We are West Prep!

The authors will be presenting "Increasing Minority Involvement in STEM Courses" at VISION 2013. For more information, visit www.careertechvision.com.

Karl J. Herman is the AP physics instructor at Hazelwood West High School. Karl is a founding member of the West Preparatory Academy and serves as co-director and grant writer. He can be reached at kherman@hazelwoodschools.org

Matt McClellan is the special areas curriculum coordinator for the Hazelwood School District. He is also one of the founding members of the West Preparatory Academy. He can be reached at mmccleln02@hazelwoodschools.org.