Recipient Organization
OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
STILLWATER,OK 74078
Performing Department
Human Development & Family Sci
Non Technical Summary
Student dropout has been called a silent epidemic in the U.S. Over the past 50 years, the U.S. has fallen from having one of the highest graduation rates among the world's developed countries to ranking close to the bottom (22nd out of 27 countries). Most of these dropouts occur in low-performing schools in low-income neighborhoods and disproportionately affect the nation's minority students. Almost 2,000 high schools across the U.S. have been categorized as "dropout factories" because they graduate less than 60% of their students and account for over 50% of the students who leave school every year. About 32% of minority students attend "dropout factories" compared to only 8% of white students creating widening issues of equity and inclusion. Dropout increases the risk of living in poverty and impoverishes the nation. On average, students who drop out earn $30,000 per year less than do students from the same socioeconomic states that graduated by the time they are in middle adulthood. Over half of high school dropouts are on public assistance and each dropout will create a cost to taxpayers exceeding $300,000 over their lifetime. Additionally, nearly 83% of incarcerated persons are high school dropouts. In short, dropout causes incalculable human suffering and staggering economic costs.United We Can (UWC) is a research-based prevention program designed to help address the nation's dropout epidemic by bringing together three key areas that have been shown to promote academic achievement among youth. First, UWC works to reduce barriers to and encourage family engagement in the child's education. Parents or guardians and youth attend a series of workshops together that use instruction, interactive activities, and guided reflections to aid parentThe ¡Unidos Se Puede! (United We Can!) program is a family-based program that targets low-income middle-school youth and their families. The United We Can! (UWC) program helps these youth do better in school, avoid risky behaviors such as drug use and teen pregnancy, and reduce the chronic stress in their lives that lead to school dropout and long-term physical and emotional problems.How does it work? UWC has three major components: Family Engagement, Youth Personal Agency, and Positive Peer Affiliations.Family Engagement. Families attend a series of meetings in which we use fun activities and games to help parents become more involved in their child's schooling, learn general parenting skills, become more comfortable with the U.S. educational system, and learn how to advocate for their child's success. In addition to increased school engagement, the sessions: (a) help parents network with others in a way that reduces social isolation, (b) regain a sense of control over their and their child's future, and (c) cultivate the hope necessary to successfully cope with stress and practice positive parenting. These sessions are followed up by 14 monthly booster sessions in which we connect parents and youth to community resources, introduce new themes, and practice the skills already learned.Youth Personal Agency. This component empowers youth to take control of their own future. Youth are assigned to a success coach who works with them to develop a personal success plan focused on educational goals and critical life skills. Coaches are young adults who are enrolled in college or have recently graduated. Coaches monitor students' academic progress using data provided by the school on absences, grades, and behavior problems. When challenges arise, coaches use the challenges to help youth develop life skills such as emotion regulation, goal setting, critical thinking, problem-solving, and other attributes of positive youth development (e.g., personal care, study habits, time management). Coaches also maintain regular contact with parents to help foster strong parent-adolescent relationships and to encourage and empower their involvement in their child's academic achievement.Positive Peer Affiliations. Youth participate in regular activities (monthly during the school year and weekly during the summer) designed to provide a space in which they can bond with each other and develop a sense of belonging with a group of like-minded peers. Activities focus on exposure to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) related careers as well as training in entrepreneurship including an end-of-year competition judged by successful business owners from the community. A final summer outing takes youth to a major college campus. Here youth begin to envision themselves completing a four-year degree by interacting with professors and students in specially designed workshops on diverse topics such as DNA sequencing, robotics, social science data collection, and videography.
Animal Health Component
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Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
0%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
This project proposes to increase academic performance, reduce high-risk behaviors, and increase small business start-ups among economically underprivileged youth who are at-risk for not completing high school. The United We Can! program model will be implemented, which includes a five-week family workshop series, training in entrepreneurship, monthly booster sessions, weekly one-on-one coaching, monthly 4H Entrepreneurship Clubs, and a Summer Youth Academy for at-risk youth. An interrupted time-series design will be used to evaluate key outcomes of the project. This project promotes the CYFAR outcome "Teens," and will demonstrate increases in knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behavior necessary for fulfilling contributing lives.Program description. This educational evidence-based program helps to accomplish the NIFA goal of equipping youth who are at risk of not meeting basic human needs with the skills they need to lead positive, productive, and contributing lives through strong land-grant/community partnerships. To accomplish these outcomes, UWC addresses three primary aims known to impact academic attainment and workforce preparation:1) enhancing youth self-efficacy and social-emotional learning,2) improving parental involvement in school, and3) creating a sense of belonging among a group of positively focused peers and to a positive social institution (school).
Project Methods
This Joint SCP builds on Extension's successful ongoing work with underserved communities from two historically underserved states. A rigorous evaluation plan has produced ten waves of data from OSU's past and present CYFAR projects that show youth in the UWC program improved academic outcomes (grades, absences, detentions, and suspensions) and showed statistically significant increases in parental involvement in child's schooling, youth and parent academic expectations, youth self-efficacy and STEM involvement, family cohesion, and decreases in negative peer affiliations and youth drug use (. Parent attendance to parent-teacher conferences also increased to 98% across sites. This proposal combines OSU's expertise in implementing an evidence-based program, WVU's expertise working with underserved communities, and resources from key community partners to implement UWC with at-risk families in two sites in Tulsa, OK and in Mingo, Logan, and Hardy Counties in West Virginia. Program description. This educational evidence-based program helps to accomplish the NIFA goal of equipping youth who are at risk of not meeting basic human needs with the skills they need to lead positive, productive, and contributing lives through strong land-grant/community partnerships.1. UWC Family Workshop Series and Monthly Booster Sessions. Program Coordinators conduct the five weekly 2.5-hour educational sessions for parents in conjunction with community partners to encourage supportive family relationships (#3), cultural identity, and mutual understanding (#4). Sessions are designed to: a) help parents communicate with school personnel, and empower parents to advocate successfully on behalf of their child; b) introduce parents and youth to available community and school resources that support academic success; c) promote parental support and involvement, and equip them with strategies to avoid barriers to academic success; d) teach the planning and setting of realistic goals, e) train parents to access and use school-based technology to track student performance; f) provide general, culturally appropriate parenting skills; and g) motivate enrollment in post-secondary education. Concurrent youth sessions use the evidence-based JA entrepreneurship programs It's My Business, which uses interactive hands-on activities and technology (e.g., media, apps, and computer software) to teach and promote creative thinking, problem-solving, goal setting, exploration of career options, a vision of potential future selves, and persistence. Success Coaches (Extension Program Assistants) under the direction of site-based Program Coordinators with the help of personnel from the targeted county coalitions in each location lead the youth component. In later years older project youth (e.g., 9th - 12th grade) also help with the youth component to further develop their own leadership skills. After the initial UWC Family Workshop Series, monthly 2-hour Family Fun Night booster sessions reinforce knowledge and skills gained from the workshop series and further connect families to local resources. Interactive learning strategies are used to teach topics such as family cohesion, communication, parenting, nutrition, hygiene, and financial planning. Technology and STEM activities are woven into sessions such as learning to use special apps (e.g., for nutrition, exercise, scheduling), web security, and the school district's Internet portal (i.e., PowerSchool) to monitor student academic progress and improve communication between parents and school staff. Booster sessions are led by Project Coordinators and community partners.2. Success Coaching (#8). Each year Success Coaches develop a computer-based individualized needs and assets assessment to guide efforts with each student in the program(technology). During the first two school years of the project (7th-8th grades), Success Coaches meet with youth weekly or bi-weekly depending on need (25-32 individual contact hours per student per year) to provide appropriate monitoring, structure, and targeted support (#2), and discuss progress towards goals including challenges and successes. During the third year of the project (9th grade) students continue in regular 4-H activities and transition into a leadership position to reinforce behavior changes. Success Coaches support youth in the areas of efficacy and mattering (#6), and in creating a safe environment for youth (#1) to learn and succeed. They accomplish this by: (1) using data on academic performance to monitor grades and attendance and regularly communicating with parents to continue promoting their school involvement (technology); (2) helping youth overcome barriers by teaching and modeling problem-solving skills and goal setting, and connecting youth to community resources such as academic tutors and to other professionals and organizations as needed; (3) promoting attendance to program activities such as 4-H, Family Fun Night, and Summer Program; (4) helping youth prepare for college entrance exams and financial aid applications. Success Coaches use technologies familiar to youth (e.g., text messaging) to connect with youth during after-school hours and between their scheduled meetings and the UWC specially designed app to guide the success coaching sessions with students. Success Coaches meet weekly with Program Coordinators and monthly with Program Directors Cox and Cobb for in-service training and to troubleshoot difficult cases.3. Monthly 4-H Entrepreneurship Clubs. Monthly 4H Club activities will strengthen youth life skills and further entrepreneurship training (e.g., goal setting, decision-making, leadership, being a team member, writing and speaking skills, conflict resolution, coping with stress, service, eating healthy, and being physically active) and STEM activities that promote academic success and expose youth to possible career tracks. Success Coaches and trained adult volunteers provide structural support for activities. 4H Clubs create physical and psychological safety for youth in which they can express themselves and feel supported (#1,#5), and provide opportunities for youth to belong to a cultural group that they lead (#4), strengthening their life skills (#7, #5) and promoting positive peer affiliations - a known deterrent to academic failure. The use of technology is integrated into project activities, such as assisting youth in developing critical thinking skills through reflective journaling using a blog, learning criteria for credible websites and safe use of the Internet, and exploring potential career interests or colleges using search tools. In 10th thru 12th grades, structured activities and the use of technology help youth successfully prepare for and complete college admission, financial aid, scholarship applications, and college entrance exams (e.g., ACT, SAT). Older youth (e.g., 9th -12th graders) transition into volunteer leaders to help organize and facilitate program activities, and tutor younger students in the project.4. UWC Eight-Week Summer Program. UWC partners with numerous community partners to offer an overnight camp for the entire family, outings to museums, soccer clinics, and exposure to diverse career opportunities during June and July to create a sense of physical and psychological safety where students express themselves and grow in unity as 4-H club members (#1, #5). Additionally, youth gain a sense of college life by visiting the OSU and WVU campuses. During this multi-day experience, youth tour the campus, eat in a dining hall, stay overnight in a residence hall, participate in STEM and Entrepreneurship activities, and listen to a student panel discuss career opportunities and tips for high school preparation to help ensure college success. Older project youth assist with the planning of the Summer Program to continue gaining leadership skills.