This paper summarizes Ten years' efforts of a pre-engineering program to improve the recruitment and retention of under-represented students pursuing careers in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology (SMET) at The University of Akron. This study, evaluates The University of Akron's successful operations of the special high school Upward Bound and the Pre-Engineering Programs to increase the number of underrepresented students in SMET. The programs are in collaboration with the College of Engineering's Minority Engineering Program, Increasing Diversity in Engineering Academics (IDEAs). The effectiveness of the programs are measured by: (a) high school GPA before and after participating in the programs, (b) retention rate for students returning from previous year, and (c) percentage of students majoring in SMET upon graduation. The end results of these strategies are that the targeted students, who have expressed an interest in mathematics and science, are highly motivated and excited about SMET careers.
Although vouth workers frequently undergo in-service training, methodological shortcomings in evaluations of these programs often obscure the effects. This article reports on a field experiment that randomly assigned school counselors, juvenile court staff, and a variety of other youth workers to a training (experimental) or control group. Results support five of eight hypotheses comparing trainees with controls in terms of (1) tech niques such as reinforcement and (2) certain attributes of interpersonal relations with the youths in caseloads as well as with these youths' parents and friends. Shortcomings in the content of the training program appear responsible for inconclusive results on one hypothesis and lack of verification of two others.
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