Finish the Interaction part and conclusion part of the paper

Individual Tasks:

Everyone should find at least one good source that will be integrated into the report in a specific place. One source should be showing the current state of online high school education at Columbus State, one source can be examining success rates of students who take college classes earlier than college, one source can be analyzing the current interaction between multiple sources can be used for finding actual costs of our plan (this should be done last after the plan is finished)

Weekly Schedule Plan:

Tuesday:

Complete individual sections to the fullest extent

Find sources (as you find them (and only if you use them in text) add them to the References at the bottom of the page in APA citation format)

Wednesday:

Complete individual section to the fullest extent

Thursday:

Meet to Finalize and complete budget

Project Summary

Countless local school districts from across the United States pass up the opportunity to provide introductory courses in STEM related technical fields, something which could greatly benefit the of thousands of engineers and scientists that graduate from college every year. With the creation of a small-scale assistance program, students will have the opportunity to increase their competitiveness with others from across the globe by offering online classes with an in-person recitation/tutor session with college students who have extended knowledge in the subject area. Upon completion, students will be awarded college credit pending that they pass the course, and will also count for elective credit in their high school. Columbus City School District has been chosen as the target education system because of their

Overview

Once funded, the Early Education Assistance Program will bring online courses offered at Columbus State Community College to high school students of Columbus City Schools. Portions of the funds requested will go towards providing students at inner city schools with temporary laptops for use during the online section of the courses. Mentor students from Ohio State will serve as leaders and instructors, and visit once a week to their assigned schools to host a tutor session, aiding the students in their learning. A mandatory service learning program will be assigned to all participating Ohio State mentors to ensure adequate ability to provide assistance in a classroom setting.

Broader Impact

The broader impact of this program are...

Providing results of postsecondary options being offered in inner city schools

Showcasing to those outside of the program the possibility of entering the STEM field

Feeding more minority students into collegiate programs

Project Description

Background and Current State:

Columbus City Schools is a hub for minority students in the Columbus area and consists of 21 high schools and numerous elementary and middle schools. According the the 2013-2014 Columbus City Schools Progress Report, student makeup of the district is 56.06% African American, 26% Caucasian and 8.9% Hispanic students with “Nearly four of every five of [Columbus City Schools] students come from families challenged by poverty, often generational” (Daniel 2013-14). Additional information regarding Student Demographics for Columbus City Schools (CCS) can be seen below in Figure 1. In 2014, the Executive Office of the President released an action plan set with the goal of increasing college opportunities for low-income students and Columbus City Schools fall directly into that category. In the Columbus City Schools Progress Report Dr. J. Daniel notes that “CCS has the highest rate of identification of minority students for the gifted and talented program (and nearly double the next highest of the five schools) and the second highest rate of identification of economically disadvantaged students” (Daniel 2013-14). Together, this make CCS the perfect setting to introduce an college assistance program that allows high school students in low-income areas to earn college credit through online courses while still in high school.

Figure 1: CCS Student Demographics

A college education could be the key for CCS students to break free from generational poverty. Georgetown University published an article that focused on projections of jobs and education requirements through 2018 and in that article mentions “ postsecondary education gradually became the threshold requirement for access to middle class status and earnings” (Carnevale Smith Strohl 2010). This means that a college education is the catalyst that would redirect the futures of these young students and enable them to transition out of poverty and into the middle class. By filling the Columbus area with more college educated individuals, the potential arises of filling more qualified applicants into the jobs that require such education.This progression would not only reshape the makeup of CCS but the Columbus area as a whole, boosting its students futures and the overall Columbus economy.

Joseph Williams, a veteran journalist and former White House correspondent for Politico, wrote “Parents Want STEM Classes, So Why Do Schools Struggle to Keep Them Alive?” (October 7th, 2015) which focuses on the many downfalls often encountered by programs such as the one being proposed. He writes that the “problems [with these programs] ranged from scheduling conflicts between STEM classes and core classes students needed to graduate”(Williams 2015). However, one of the advantages of online college courses is that they allow flexibility in a student's schedule, so that completing additional high school course requirements should not be an issue. Furthermore, in 2014 “25 [CCS] schools...expanded their networks to offer building-wide wireless with universal internet access throughout” (Daniel 2013-14). This provides confirmation that students enrolling in this program would have the wireless connection necessary to complete their coursework within school property.

Columbus State Community College for 50 years now has been a low expense way for Columbus students to earn a 2 year degree. It is a growing institution whose growth has come with it the expanded opportunity for its students to delve into growing fields. Columbus State was chosen as the partner college for this program due to these qualities and its ease of accessibility for CCS students. Columbus State has a reputable online education system and has locations centered throughout Columbus, making it accessible to high schools students post graduation as well. By partnering CCS with Columbus State, cross benefits will also bloom as the diverse population of CCS is contributed to Columbus State's’ student makeup. As of 2016, Columbus State’s student makeup was 61% Caucasian, 18% African American and 5% hispanic (Fast Facts 2016). Additional information regarding the Student Demographics at Columbus State can be seen below in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Columbus State Student Demographics

“both college student and general adult population volunteers favoring the education and youth development sector”

“The top five volunteer activities for college students in education or youth development are: 1) Tutoring/teaching – 26.6 percent”

“research shows that, for a mentoring relationship to be effective, it should be both time-intensive and of fairly long duration.”

Project Plan:

The goal of this project is to provide inner city students with an opportunity to learn about fundamental STEM related courses. The courses will be opened as online classes with a tutor session once a week. There will be a program manager who will oversee all the courses that are being held. There will be 5 phases to install the program, which are Set-up, Recruitment, Mentor Education, Interaction, and Measurement. Set-up is to see big steps to construct the program. Recruitment is regarding the role of university faculty member who will be in charge of the program, and the undergraduate students who will be hired as tutors or handling the program to run smoothly. Mentor Education is explaining about …

Set-Up:

Two main settings for initiating this project include administrative affairs and technology and logistics management. The first step is this process is to hire both program manager and the undergraduate students. Based on the university registrar, the course enrollment date is around the week 9-11 of the semester before. Thus, the the program manager may need to be assigned before this date so that the manager can hire the undergraduate teaching assistants. The UTAs will be hired based on the qualifications listed on Department of Engineering Education at Ohio State University

The next step is to arrange loaner laptops that will be provided for the students. The inner city students will take the online courses and complete the tasks with the installed softwares on it. These laptops will be purchased through the techHUB at university depend on the proper quality for the courses that will be programmed. The softwares that will have to be installed will use the license from the university.

The third step is to find a space in the Columbus city schools. The buildings where the students are working in will need to have wifi, and need to make sure there is a space available in the schools that will allow the students who are taking the online class can go and work in their individual time. When we are setting up this program, we will contact and visit each school to see if the space is appropriate for students to work in and if the rooms can be used for the tutor session. The inner city students will go to least one tutor session in a week for the online class they are taking. The tutors who are hired as the UTAs from the university will have qualifications for all variety of STEM related courses included in the program. These tutor sessions will be enrolled as regular class and make sure meeting times will worked out for students so that everyone is accommodated.

Last thing to check is to make sure that funding is set up with Columbus State so that students’ classes are paid for before the semester starts. Most of the financial issues will be handled by the Columbus State and the program manager, but also the students who are taking business minor or industrial and system engineering major students will participate on making sure the project stays without exceeding the estimated budget.

Recruitment:

Discuss role of university faculty member in charge of overseeing the program as well as any additional grant or organizational structure organization. Acts as a contact for UTA’s to reach out to for additional assistance. Will hold periodic meetings with UTA’s to ensure progress is being made. Ensures a good relationship is being upheld between university and inner city columbus schools involved in the program. Faculty member will ideally be a member of the Engineering Education System.

Discuss role of student assistant hired to ensure the program runs smoothly (handle logistics and general course management details). Handles management of technologies used within program (takes care of any issues that arise with laptops or software used throughout the program). Student will ideally be a graduate students pursuing a future in Engineering Education.

Discuss process of recruiting students for mentoring positions.

university Students will apply for this position via the Department of Engineering Education at Ohio State

1 uta for every 5 high school students participating in the program

UTA Qualifications According to the Department of Engineering Education

The UTA must be self-directed and comfortable in a team environment, both in the classroom and in the labs. The UTA must be truly interested in helping students succeed in their engineering fundamentals course work and develop the skills necessary for success in future courses. In addition, the UTA must have the following:

Successful completion of the Fundamentals of Engineering sequence (includes: honors, scholars, standard, and transfer sequences)

For FEH UTAs, experience with the Honors sequence is preferred

For FE Scholars UTAs, experience with the Scholars sequence is preferred

Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Strong interpersonal skills

Competence in engineering graphics and the use of computer-based tools such as EXCEL, MATLAB, Word, PowerPoint, and Computer Aided Design (CAD); and acceptance as a major in an engineering program, or related field

Overall GPA of 2.7 or higher is required

Images of UTAs may be used in printed material and videotapes made for the purpose of informing the university community and the general public about activities in the College of Engineering

These qualifications will be the same for university student applying to be a part of this student

Mentor Education:

university students participating in this program will complete a required service learning course in order to receive proper training on how to aid students throughout the duration of the program. The service learning course will focus on students ability to translate the knowledge they have regarding a particular subject to a different context. Throughout this course students will have modules on appropriate student-tutor interaction, barriers of assistance, the structure of Columbus State’s online courses, and a refresher unit on the topic in which they will tutor in. This course will be taught by the Program Manager for the program. This course will last 6 weeks and will result in a pass-fail grade. Students will enroll in this course once they are accepted as volunteers for the program. All students training to become tutors will take the same course, with the only variation in learning being the unit which covers the translation of preexisting knowledge to different contexts. This portion of the course

Interaction:

(here we need to discuss how the high school students will interact with university students. How many times a week, for how long, contacts will be exchanged for additional meeting times if needed (ie office hours), additional study sessions will be held around finals to help boost students chances of success.)

Measurement:

The growth and development of this program will rely heavily on its measured successes and failures. This program will have a multidimensional evaluation system in place to effectively take into account the feedback of all participating members. Success will be measured using the following criteria…

Program enrollment

Whether or not the amount of students involved in the program is building each year.

The goal is to have 1 college student participant per 5 high school students enrolled in the program

The goal is to have 50% of the students eligible to participate in this program enrolled by its 4th active year.

Participant feedback

An anonymous survey will be administered at the beginning, middle and end of each semester to both high school and college student participants. It will ask them to rank 1-10 their satisfaction with different elements of the program such as…

Their overall satisfaction with the program.

Their interactions with other participants of the program (i.e. college student tutors or participating high school students).

Their comfortability with the subject matter of the courses they are taking or tutoring.

Their ability to navigate the online course material.

Their thoughts on available resources such as…

Additional office hours

High school counselors

Program coordinator

Grades students receive in online courses

Are a majority of the students receiving passing grades?

This will act as an indicator of whether or not the current amount of resources are doing a sufficient job at assisting students in their successes.

Success Rates of Students After the Program

What percentage of students continue their college education beyond this program?

What percentage of students obtain a full-time job after high school graduation related to their coursework?

The results of these surveys will be summarized and reported out to participating CCS, tutors, and the Program Manager. This information will be saved as proof of progress throughout the duration of the program. Collected results will be discussed with relevant stakeholders and changes will be made to the program accordingly.

Conclusion: