The impact of an intervention program for high ability minority students on rates of high school graduation, college enrollment and choice of a quantitative major

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the Saturday Academy Program for high ability minority students on rates of high school graduation, college enrollment and selection of a quantitative major. The experimental group subjects were 1982-83 alumni of the Saturday Academy Program. This program is located on the Van Ness Campus of the University of the District of Columbia. The control group subjects had the same profile as the experimental group subjects with respect to age and school performance. For each of the three variables in this study confidence intervals (alpha =.05)were calculated for the difference between proportions using the following data sets: (i) total experimental group vs. total control group; (ii) experimental males vs. control males; (iii) experimental females vs. control females; (iv) experimental males vs. experimental females; (v) control males vs. control females; (vi) total males vs. total females. With respect to each variable, the results of this study regarding the impact of program participation indicate that there exist: (i) a significant difference between total experimental and total control group members; (ii) although the difference between experimental females and control females was significant it was less pronounced than the significant difference between experimental males and control males on all three variables. The difference between the total male population and the total female population was not significant with respect to high school graduation rates, rate of college enrollment or selection of a quantitative major. The secondary purpose of this research was to provide a description of the Saturday Academy Program. To carry out this secondary purpose, parents (or guardians) of current participants, participants and program teachers were asked to complete questionnaires. Administrative personnel were interviewed and project reports were examined. Recommendations were made based on the results of these findings.