The School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt: An Innovative Research-Based Program for High School Students

The School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt (SSMV) is an innovative partnership program between a Research I private university and a large urban public school system. The SSMV was started in 2007 and currently has 101 students enrolled in the program, with a total of 60 students who have completed the 4-yr sequential program. Students attend the SSMV for one full day per week during the school year and 3–6 wk in the summers following their ninth- to 11th-grade years, with each grade of 26 students coming to the Vanderbilt campus on a separate day. The research-based curriculum focuses on guiding students through the process of learning to develop questions and hypotheses, designing projects and performing analyses, and communicating results of these projects. The SSMV program has elevated the learning outcomes of students as evidenced by increased achievement scores relative to a comparison group of students; has provided a rigorous research-based science, technology, engineering, and mathematics elective curriculum that culminates in a Summer research internship; has produced 27 Intel and Siemens semifinalists and regional finalists over the past 4 yr; and has supported the development of writing and communication skills resulting in regional and national oral presentations and publications in scientific journals.     

The Cambridge controlled choice plan

Parent choice in education is enjoying growing support among both minorities and whites. The greatest practical impetus to the extension of parent choice in public schools has been the use of magnet schools in desegregation plans. This study analyzes the history of parent choice in Cambridge, Mass. and its outcome. Parent choice in the Cambridge public schools has produced greater interracial exposure than the prior mandatory reassignment plan, as well as increased student achievement.     

Cognitive style and complex concept acquisition

College undergraduates classified by the Hidden Figures Test as high, medium, or low analytic studied one of two lesson types. Both lessons taught four complex nondimensioned concepts from the area of social learning by presenting a definition followed by either positive examples or positive and negative examples. Immediate acquisition was assessed by a test requiring subjects to identify positive and negative examples. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed a significant interaction on the dependent variable requiring the identification of positive examples.     

Bridging the Challenges of Transnational Education and Accreditation

Between 1985 and 1996, the world population of kindergarten through to higher education students grew from 919 million to 1.13 billion. There are at least three typical global higher education student profiles. Distance education - the delivery of education courses from one location to students at another location - is an alternative way to reach many students within these profiles. Distance education has a different set of characteristics from that typical of place-bound education, and transnational education brings yet more features. Regardless of the ways in which education is delivered, its quality assurance and maintenance of standards is of paramount concern among many national and international institutions, organizations and private sector companies, and students. Organizations such as the Global Alliance for Transnational Education (GATE) provide a prototype for achieving such standards.