RAPID:The Percy Julian Project: STEM Opportunities for African-American Boys

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AbstractThis project seeks to conduct research on a new school for African-American boys under a charter to 100 Black Men in Oakland, California. The PI from Stanford University investigates how leaders of the school plan and design instruction to meet the needs of African-American boys where 75% are eligible for free and/or reduced lunch. The leadership serves as the primary target for this study. The PI chronicles the implementation process to provide the STEM education community with first-hand information about effective school development and implementation for African-American boys in STEM fields. During the first year, the school operates grades 3, 6, and 7. Each successive year, school leaders add kindergarten and/or one or more of the remaining grades until the school reaches the entire K-12 level. A mixed methods approach uses interviews, observations, and content analysis to gather data about the design, implementation, and leadership of the school. The PI examines how the leadership understands the needs of students, develop standards, plan curricula, select pedagogy, and provide scaffolds for teachers and students. The PI also explores how the leadership selects teachers and supports their professional development as well as summarizes many aspects of the organization and programming. The PI reviews planning documents through retrospective analysis to obtain a more accurate account of efforts taken from the initiation of ideas about the school to implementation for the first year. Regarding proposed outcomes, the project offers a vision of what works in science STEM classroom for African American boys and tracks the impact of instructional approaches on the interest of students in science, attitudes about belonging, and science achievement. A RAPID is the most appropriate funding avenue for this timely and worthy effort of national importance.