MSP Closing the Achievement Gap

MSP Closing the Achievement Gap: Recent results released by the National Science Foundation (NSF) on its Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program show an overall improvement in math and science achievement among participating middle and high school students. These MSP students have also begun to close the achievement gap between white, African-American and Hispanic students. Under NSF's MSPs, faculty members specializing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at higher education institutions provide professional development and mentoring for K-12 teachers in the same fields. The MSP program currently supports 52 such partnerships around the country that unite some 150 institutions of higher education with more than 700 school districts. The report shows that the scores of Caucasian students participating in MSPs that are performing at or above the proficient level in math and/or science rose 4.6 percent between the 2003-2004 and the 2005-2006 school years. The results for Hispanic and African-American MSP students show a closing of the achievement gap. The percentage of MSP Hispanic students performing at or above proficient rose from 35.9 to 54.2 percent (an increase of 18.3 percentage points). MSP African-American students performing at or above proficient rose by 17.9 points, from 27.6 to 45.5 percent. Asian-American students, special education students and students with limited English proficiency also showed gains. "I'm happy to see that schools' involvement in MSP projects is continuing to have a positive impact on student proficiency results," said Dan Maki, NSF program director.

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http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5756&org=DUE&from=home