Browsing by Author "Zaman, Samiha"
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Item Evaluating ImpACT in KIPP Charter Schools(2021-04-01) Patel, Diya; Zaman, SamihaThe United States undeniably suffers from an educational gap that has only been continually growing due to the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic has shifted classes to a virtual platform, thereby limiting students’ access to readily available teachers, face-to-face tutoring, and overall academic motivation. Poor educational results in high school can lead to a continual cycle of struggle in college and inability to maintain academic stability. ImpACT, a project within the University of Houston’s Bonner Leaders Program, provides free personalized ACT mentoring to high school students in underprivileged communities to help bridge the educational gap. Our primary community partners are KIPP Houston High School and KIPP Sunnyside High School. Under current circumstances, mentors run sessions virtually in breakout rooms by going over test strategies and practicing problems to increase student confidence and test performance. After the ACT exam, the program continues to offer personalized college prep mentoring by providing helpful scholarship websites, tips to perfect application essays, and resume building. This presentation uses a falsifiable logic model to analyze the successes and setbacks of the current online platform. As of March 2021, the project has implemented two short-term programs in both KIPP Sunnyside and KIPP Houston and depicts two different models that demonstrate the personalized and unique approach that ImpACT took to serve its partners during the pandemic. Based on the results, ImpACT seeks to improve mentee attendance, mentee commitment to the program, and ACT subject training for mentors.Item How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected traditionally disadvantaged students taking the ACT in a low-income Houston high school?(2022-04-14) Foreman, Shane; Nguyen, David; Patel, Diya; Zaman, SamihaDuring the pandemic, high school students from underserved communities in Houston faced greater challenges in accessing college preparatory resources than ever before. ImpACT (Invested, Motivated, and Prepared for the ACT) is a service-learning project in the Bonner Leaders Program within The Honors College at the University of Houston. Its mission is to fight poverty, bridging the academic achievement gap with personalized college mentorship for underserved high school students. Undergraduate mentors guide students through test-taking strategies for each ACT subject and assist them in navigating their journey to higher education by providing further resources. By working with community partners, undergraduate student mentors, and high school students, ImpACT strives to help students achieve a 2-point ACT score increase (COVID-adjusted), an increase in academic test-taking confidence, and a stronger understanding of post-secondary options. During the fall 2021 semester, ImpACT conducted an ACT and college prep program consisting of seven virtual sessions focused on ACT strategies and practice questions. Seven KIPP Sunnyside seniors participated in the program, which ran from September to October 2021. Students’ ACT scores were collected from ACT exams administered in April 2021, a couple of months before the program, and October 2021, directly after the program. Analysis on student data showed that after participating in the program, the students’ ACT scores remained consistent to national ACT score performance trends, indicating the need to continue providing more support and resources to underserved students at low-income Houston high schools.Item The Effect of STEM-Focused High School Education on Texas Student Outcomes(2023-04-13) Joshi, Neha; Zaman, SamihaAs STEM programs have become increasingly popular in the past decade, it is essential to understand how this educational framework affects academic performance during and after high school. Our data project focuses on Texas high schools that offer non-core, advanced, or specialized STEM courses beyond state-requirements in math and science. While accounting for confounding variables, the project analyzes six educational outcomes: college and career readiness rates, SAT and ACT above criterion rates, four-year longitudinal graduation rates, college enrollment rates, first year above 3.0 GPA rates at four-year colleges, and first year above 3.0 GPA rates at two-year colleges. We analyzed 1,675 high school campuses to see how much STEM-focused course offerings at the high school level contribute to higher graduation and college-readiness rates at the high school level and higher enrollment and performance rates at the college level. The results do not seem to indicate any significant impact of non-core STEM coursework on educational outcomes at a state-wide level. In comparison, factors such as percentages of students identified as at-risk, economically disadvantaged, and gifted and talented were found to be more accurate indicators of educational outcomes.