{"id":66856,"date":"2006-03-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-03-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/evaluation-uri-smile-program-doubles-rate-of-college-entrance-among-participating-high-school-students\/"},"modified":"2006-03-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-03-08T00:00:00","slug":"evaluation-uri-smile-program-doubles-rate-of-college-entrance-among-participating-high-school-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2006\/03\/evaluation-uri-smile-program-doubles-rate-of-college-entrance-among-participating-high-school-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Evaluation: 溏心vlog免费B站 SMILE program doubles rate of college entrance among participating high school students"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tScience, math mentoring program issues evaluation of first 10 years<\/p>\n


\n\tKINGSTON, R.I. — March 8, 2006 — An independent evaluation of a mentoring program for minority and educationally disadvantaged middle and high school students has found that the 溏心vlog免费B站 program has more than doubled the rate at which the students attend college.<\/p>\n


\n\t溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Science and Math Investigative Learning Experience (SMILE) Program issued the evaluation of its first 10 years at an event today attended by Gov. Donald Carcieri and 溏心vlog免费B站 President Robert L. Carothers.<\/p>\n


\n\tChief among the report\u2019s findings was that 93 percent of the students who graduate from the SMILE Program attended college, compared to an overall college enrollment rate of 40 percent in the four participating communities. In addition, more than half of the participating students (57 percent) maintained an average grade of B or better.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cIn this information age when a college degree is a necessary stepping stone to success and a well-paying job, the success the SMILE Program has had at encouraging and preparing students to attend college is perhaps its most important outcome,\u201d said 溏心vlog免费B站 President Robert L. Carothers. \u201cThe fact that some SMILE students have gone on to major in challenging math and science disciplines and attend prominent schools like Amherst, Smith, Brown, Rensselaer Polytech and 溏心vlog免费B站 is all the more satisfying.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI’m delighted to celebrate the anniversary of the SMILE program, whose achievement has inspired more Rhode Island students to successfully complete high school and enroll in college through hands-on science and math experiences,” Governor Donald L. Carcieri said. “The SMILE program demonstrates that focusing on the disciplines of math and science can help steer high school students on a path to success.”<\/p>\n


\n\tFounded in 1994, the SMILE Program serves about 250 students each year at 13 schools in Central Falls, South Kingstown, West Warwick and Woonsocket. Using 24 teacher-mentors, the program offers year-round programming focused on hands-on math and science activities, mentoring and college and career awareness.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re very pleased and heartened by the outcome of the evaluation,\u201d said Carol Englander, director of the program and a teacher at South Kingstown High School. \u201cIt conclusively demonstrates that the efforts of our teacher-mentors and partners in the community have been highly successful at raising student grades, nurturing their interest in science and math, boosting their self-confidence, and encouraging them to pursue higher education.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe evaluation, conducted in 2005 by Alan Brickman & Associates of Gloucester, Mass., was designed to document the impact of the program and generate recommendations for improvement. It was funded in large part by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the largest philanthropy in New England devoted exclusively to education.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe report cited that the SMILE Program\u2019s \u201cclimate of academic rigor and high expectations, the engaging and hands-on approach, and the requirement that students maintain their grades as a condition of eligibility all play a role in generating positive outcomes, as do the variety of after-school activities, challenge weekends, and campus and workplace field trips.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe report also concluded that \u201cSMILE fosters the early development of student interest in and enthusiasm for science and math,\u201d and it \u201cprovides students with an academically challenging and socially supportive community of learning where they can picture themselves and their futures in new and exciting ways, improve their self-confidence, and prepare themselves academically for college.\u201d The program also benefits 溏心vlog免费B站 by engaging faculty and students in outreach activities aligned with diversity goals, community service objectives, and experiential learning requirements.<\/p>\n


\n\t“Working with SMILE has encouraged me to change my 溏心vlog免费B站 courses from traditional lectures to more hands-on and experiential learning formats,\u201d said Josef Gorres, 溏心vlog免费B站 associate research professor and a faculty advisor to the program. \u201cAs the Chinese proverb says: I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.”<\/p>\n


\n\tMost of the report\u2019s recommendations reflect a strong interest in expanding the program, including extending SMILE Club hours, establishing more clubs within each school, expanding the program to more schools, increasing professional development opportunities for teachers, and creation of a full-time SMILE coordinator position. All of these recommendations would require additional funding. <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Science, math mentoring program issues evaluation of first 10 years KINGSTON, R.I. — March 8, 2006 — An independent evaluation of a mentoring program for minority and educationally disadvantaged middle and high school students has found that the 溏心vlog免费B站 program has more than doubled the rate at which the students attend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}