An urban partnership: Inservice and science enrichment programs for a Hispanic serving charter school

摘要

The Houston area has minority populations with significant school dropout rates. This is similar to other major cities in the United States and elsewhere in the world where there are significant minority populations that recently moved in from rural areas. The student dropout rates are associated in many instances with the absence of educational support opportunities either from the school and/or from the family. This is exacerbated if the student has poor English language skills. To address this issue in the greater Houston area, a NASA minority university initiative enabled us to develop a partnership between a Hispanic serving institution (University of Houston Downtown-UHD), a historically Black institution (Texas Southern University-TSU), an urban museum (Houston Museum of Natural Science-HMNS), NASA/Johnson Space Center (JSC), and a predominantly Hispanic charter school (Raul Yzaguirre School for Success-RYSS). Our main goals in the program are to reach out to minority and other underrepresented groups, encouraging an ongoing interest in education, especially in the areas of science and space science. We are achieving this through community events and professional development. In the following paragraphs we will discuss the RYSS program as it includes in-service programs for teachers, workshops for parents and their children, and summer enrichment programs led by high school and college Student Ambassadors for RYSS students.