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| Skills Reinforcement Project (SRP). A program which improves the reasoning ability and math achievement of talented students from culturally different and/or low income backgrounds. The Project's goals are to increase student participation in higher level mathematics classes, and in turn encourage currently underrepresented students to select college majors and careers in math and science. |
Audience Approved by PEP for students in grades 5-7.
Description Skills Reinforcement Project (SRP) uses a diagnostic/prescriptive approach to mastery learning in an accelerated mathematics curriculum. The approach to instruction allows students to proceed at a flexible pace as new concepts and skills are mastered. Students work individually and in groups. The curriculum itself includes elementary arithmetic concepts and skills, more advanced skills, pre-algebra, and algebra. Supplemental program components include parent education and counseling, affective development (attitude, motivation, and discipline), and a supplemental language arts instruction to help students better understand and solve mathematical problems. SRP is ideally a two-year, 220-hour intervention consisting of 20 three-hour Saturday sessions during the academic year and a two-week summer residential program at a college campus. During the summer program, students are supervised and mentored by minority college students hired as residential assistants.
SRP was developed to enhance, enrich, and promote mathematics ability and skills in talented students often underrepresented in gifted and talented programs.
Evidence of Effectiveness After completing the program, the majority of students moved up substantially in percentile rank on both achievement and aptitude tests, with more students scoring above the 90th percentile after completion of SRP than before. Greater gains were made by students participating in the program for a full two years rather than a single year. Effect sizes for pre-post contrasts ranged from one to two full standard deviations.
Requirements Staff requirements include: site director and one resident assistant per 10 students (summer component); one teacher per 20 students, one teaching assistant per teacher (Saturday and summer component). With careful preselection of staff, training requires no more than one week. During the academic year, the Project requires classroom space and during the summer, access to a local college or university campus. Instructional materials include textbooks and project publications.
Costs Start-up costs are largely determined by the costs of staffing the program. Training costs $5,000 for start-up and $2,000 to operate the program. Materials and supplies cost $4,000 initially and $2,500 to operate the program. Total costs are estimated to be between $46,500 and $65,000 for a group of 45 students, and between $1,033 and $1,444 per student.
Services All aspects of the Project are described in published papers. Curriculum guides, teacher training materials, teacher, parent, and student handbooks, as well as an administrator's handbook on how to develop an SRP are printed and available.
Developmental Funding: Private foundations.
PEP No. 93-4 (2/10/93)
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