The goals and objectives of the Newburgh (NY) Enlarged City School District's proposal are aligned with National Science Foundation's goals and objectives for the Comprehensive Partnership for Minority Student Achievement (CPMSA). A systemic approach K-12 has been designed by the school district and its partners to improve the quality and quantity of science and mathematics education received by minority students; to increase the number of minority students enrolling in and successfully completing higher level precollege science, engineering and math courses; and to increase the number of students who go on to pursue undergraduate studies in science, math, engineering, and technology (SMET), especially minority students who are significantly underrepresented in these fields. The Board of Education has unanimously adopted a resolution that embraces the CPMSA mission, promotes the philosophy for science and math as defined in the Goals 2000 Educate America Act, and commits existing resources to achieve these goals within the next five years and to sustain these efforts thereafter. the framework for the school district's model for systemic reform consists of four essential characteristics: core elements, supporting mechanisms, connecting activities, and transitional experiences for students, teachers, and parents. These will be delivered through three coordinated and integrated systems which function year round: The SMET Student Academy; The Teacher Institute; and The Parent Community Center. These entities will provide multiple pathways to attain the goal orientation needed for success in school, at work, and in life. To excite, encourage, enlist and meet the needs of student, a series of core math and science Readiness and Preparedness Courses, as well as a variety of enrichment opportunities will permeate the system. Programs such as Dial-a- Teacher, Homework Hotline, Face-to-Face Tutoring, project Adventure, Young Saturdays, Study Skills courses, SAT/ACT Pre p courses, College Saturdays and Weekends will offer students continuous support. Transitional experiences will be provided for student s at three levels: SMET Summer Camps, modeled after our 1995 NSF-funded Summer Science Camp, will provide transitional experiences at two levels, from elementary to middle and from middle to high school; a College Bridge program will help extend the pipeline from high school to college. A critical component of each transitional experience is the connection it will make to the SMET industries through field trips, shadowing, mentoring, and internship opportunities. The primary goal of the Teacher Institute is to develop and strengthen the capacity of teachers for teaching SMET courses in a multicultural setting an to alter the way that teaching, learning, and assessment take place through staff development courses based upon the latest educational research and taught under the leadership of the faculty at New York University. A unique aspect of the Teacher Institute will be the SMET Fellows Program, a 4-6 week summer internship. Parents will be actively engaged in the Parent Community Center. Satellite locations, strategically located throughout the city, will welcome parents. The programs will empower parents to become more active partners in the education of their children. By putting educational research and theory into practice, this proposed CPMSA will reduce and ultimately resolve the problem of underrepresentation in our district and has the potential to in other districts that are also experiencing a high degree of underrepresentation of minority students in higher level SMET courses. ***
