Prep Alumni Bring Educational Opportunity to Rural, Low-Income Mississippi Communities
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ALUMNI NEWS Prep Alumni Bring Educational Opportunity to Rural, Low-Income Mississippi Communities embers of the Class of 2016 In the fall of 2018, U.S. Secretary of returned to campus to act on Education DeVos came to Holmes County, the ethos “Men for Others” by the state’s poorest, to observe the pilot program launching an effort that is now and assess its potential for scaling broadly. providing crucial educational opportunities to Secretary DeVos viewed a sample of the Mhigh school students from some of America’s Physics classes produced at Prep and met with most disadvantaged communities. students, teachers, and administrators from 10 The Global Teaching Project provides school districts involved with the program. promising high school students in rural Among those present was Brian Dolan, and low-income communities access to the the tutor for the Holmes Physics class, who advanced courses they need to achieve their full participated in a roundtable discussion with the potential, but their schools do not offer, due Secretary on ways to address disparate access to both a lack of resources and a chronic, and to advanced courses for students in rural and Nikita Demir ’16 and Brian Dolan ’16 at GTP workshop worsening, shortage of teachers, particularly in low-income areas. advanced STEM courses. Additional school districts continue to GTP provides underserved students Astrophysics, to students from Georgetown be added to the pilot program, and efforts comprehensive STEM classes in a blended Prep, Holton Arms, Holy Cross, Visitation, and are underway to expand the initiative to format, which utilizes multiple means to Bethesda-Chevy Chase. underserved areas elsewhere and to implement engage students and is far more comprehensive Nikita Demir ’16, Brian Dolan ’16, additional courses. than on-line or distance learning. and Justin Helfgott ’16—now at Stanford, As the initiative ascends, Georgetown The blended classes feature a lead Yale, and Clemson, respectively—serve as Prep alumni will remain central to the effort, instructor who is an experienced teacher and tutors, working with Mississippi students both and continue to make a positive impact on the renowned subject matter expert and who remotely by videoconferences and in person lives of students who have the aptitude and presents material largely through video. In-class at the residential programs, which are hosted work ethic needed to excel academically, but instructors build on subject matter taught by by Mississippi State and the University of had been denied the opportunity to do so. As the lead teacher, implementing lesson plans Mississippi. one Mississippi student wrote to his school and providing additional instruction. Certified Their efforts already are yielding dividends. district superintendent: supervisory teachers create the curriculum for In its first year, GTP succeeded in increasing “I would like to personally thank you for each class, maintain an online course platform, the number of Mississippi public schools the opportunity to attend the AP Physics I and support in-class instructors with detailed offering AP Physics 1 by 30 percent, a figure Preparatory Academy over the course of the course outlines and pedagogical guidance. that understates the initiative’s impact in previous two weeks. Through this camp, I College student tutors from prominent most of the State because existing AP programs learned much about the curriculum involved universities are assigned to each class and were largely limited to a few, relatively affluent with physics and its basic principles, but I conduct regular live tutoring sessions, typically and populous areas. Last May, students from learned something much more important: by videoconference. Students also are provided participating schools were the first in the never think a dream is too big. leading textbooks, workbooks, and substantial history of their high schools to take the AP At this camp were two counselors [from online resources. Students prepare for the rigor Physics 1 exam, a challenge that less than one- Georgetown Prep] who attend two very of the advanced material through university- half of one percent of Mississippi public high prestigious universities: Stanford and Yale. based, residential Summer and Spring school students took on. Through all the classes, they were present and programs, where they develop the substantive Students taught by the Georgetown Prep willing to assist in our understanding of the foundation and study skills needed to succeed. tutors also have shown remarkable progress in curriculum being taught. These two brilliant GTP is now in its second year learning the rigorous subject matter. As noted young men have given me appropriate role implementing a pilot program in rural, low- in a release from Mississippi State: models to strive to match in success. In fact, I income school districts in Mississippi, the Students [in the] AP Physics preparatory am considering following in their footsteps and nation’s most impoverished state, including program…achieved dramatic gains in diving deeper into the concepts of physics and districts serving communities with the highest substantive understanding of course content, its beautiful intricacies.” overall and school-age poverty rates of the according to nationally recognized pre- and Georgetown Prep’s Year of Discernment state’s 82 counties. post-program assessments utilized by the seeks “to advance the work of reconciliation The pilot program’s inaugural course, AP American Association of Physics Teachers. and justice”. Through efforts such as the Physics 1, was created in the Father George The unique breadth of the Mississippi Mississippi pilot program, the Prep community Center, where a professional production crew pilot program—which utilizes multiple is working to bring about positive change by filmed classes taught by Professor Meg Urry, components of instruction—has begun to draw serving some of the persons and areas most director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and national attention. burdened by the odious legacy of injustice. 48 GEORGETOWN PREPARATORY SCHOOL.