Program Development for Disadvantaged High-Ability Students

Program Goals

Camp Launch was named to reflect the emphasis on changing the lives of high-ability children from low-income backgrounds by providing opportunities that will launch them on a career trajectory and lead them out of poverty. Our major aspirations are to provide the participants with a vision of the future that extends beyond the world the children know and to instill a love for learning. Camp Launch has three goals: to deliver direct instruction in academic content such as STEM, writing, academic self-efficacy, and other areas of personal development; to provide enrichment opportunities in a wide variety of content areas including the humanities; and to encourage the development of peer support networks among students with similar high ability.

Participants

Camp Launch was developed and implemented specifically to support low-income, high-ability, seventh- and eighth-grade students from school districts within 75 miles of the William and Mary campus in Williamsburg, Virginia. A certain number of slots were held for students from a given school district based on the population of students receiving free or reduced lunch (FRL). Only districts with more than 52% of students eligible for FRL were considered eligible. Camp Launch staff members contacted gifted coordinators of selected districts and informed them about the purpose of the program, responsibilities of districts, and how to identify students. Qualified students have

School districts sending campers are required to arrange for identified students to be transported to and from the college campus on the first and last day. New students are only accepted as rising seventh graders. Campers who attend as seventh graders are invited back for a second summer when they are rising eighth graders. Graduates from the second year of Camp Launch can apply to be Junior Teaching Assistants, who come for 1 week as rising ninth graders, supporting teachers and serving as positive role models for the younger campers. The number of campers varies each year, but there are usually about 70 to 80 campers.

Staff

Professional Development/Orientation

Staff members are required to attend 6 hr of orientation/professional development. Staff members receive training on policies and procedures at the camp, understanding disadvantaged high-ability student populations and issues related to their economic status, understanding middle school students’ development, engaging in effective communications with students who need help, and motivating students.

Physical Activities

After 6 hr of academic classes, students have opportunities to release their energy and stress though physical activities each day. Students can choose from a variety of activities such as ping-pong, basketball, or swimming. This physical activity time provides an opportunity to build bonds among campers, counselors, and staff members.

STEM Courses

Each course in this intensive STEM-based program emphasizes understanding concepts, advanced science content, and scientific investigation processes using an inquiry-based, problem-centered approach to learning that includes technological connections. In addition, all classes emphasize the development of advanced STEM vocabulary. Students select one of the two STEM courses to take throughout the 2-week program. STEM course lessons are 3 hr each day (totaling 30 hr during the camp).

Each year, students choose one of these STEM classes: Nanotechnology, Engineering, Lego Robotics, and Acid, Acid, Everywhere. Acid, Acid, Everywhere is the 1997 winner of a National Association for Gifted Children Curriculum Division Award for Outstanding Curriculum, and this course presents the structure of systems through chemistry, ecological habitats, and transportation. In the technology course of Lego Robotics, students explore the world of robotics by building, programming, and testing the functions of various robots. The Nanotechnology course allows students to explore the nanoworld and learn about the strange ways that material properties change with scale and why these changes occur. In the Engineering course, students work on problem-solving scenarios that utilize their new knowledge of how engineers use science concepts in their work. Students present and test their solutions as part of a class presentation. The overarching concept of systems is incorporated within the lessons to deepen students’ understanding of the scientific concepts in this Engineering class.

Writing Courses

To address the need for low-income, high-ability students to be successful in a STEM area in the future and to ensure they are ready for higher education, Camp Launch has an additional goal of complementing the development of science and technology content knowledge with strong writing skills. Learning science is an active process of describing objects and events, asking questions, acquiring knowledge, constructing explanations of natural phenomena, testing those explanations in many different ways, and communicating their ideas to others (Next Generation Science Standards Lead States, 2013). Therefore, effective science education should be accompanied by basic communication skills, and writing ability is critical for thinking and communication. Writing skills are essential to engaging in lucid, effective dialogue with other professionals (Root-Bernstein & Root-Bernstein, 1999).

Each weekday, students participate in a writing course to help them build writing skills, including advanced vocabulary development, learning how to write for different audiences and for different purposes, and learning how to edit. The types of writing include research projects, science logs, persuasive writing, descriptive and explanatory writing, personal narrative, and personal journaling. A writing course for seventh-grade students focuses on the development of basic writing skills. Students learn how to use the written word to present a point of view, how to prompt a reader into action, or how to bring an issue to life. Using a range of essays as models, students discuss and practice essay writing, focusing on personal narrative and essay. The writing class for eighth-grade students focuses on preparing students to write a research paper. Students take 1.5 hr of writing lessons each day (totaling 15 hr during the camp). In the past 4 years of Camp Launch, students showed increased facility with the ability to research a topic, and write, edit, and revise brief research papers.

Personal Development Course

As Subotnik, Olszewski-Kubilius, and Worrell (2011) pointed out, the development of talent involves more than the teaching of content. The Camp Launch Personal Development class touches on issues that have been identified in the research literature as related to individual well-being and social and academic success. Luthar’s (1991) research on resilience points to the importance of ego development and social skills in weathering challenges that high-ability, low-income students are likely to face. Personal Development is a class designed to bolster students’ psychosocial skills as they develop long-term education goals. The class focuses on encouraging students to see themselves as successful academics, helping them recognize resources in their environments, and helping them develop a future orientation that includes a college education. The purpose of the class is to help students develop an awareness of the requirements and challenges of achieving their academic and career goals, and to direct their personal agency toward meeting those goals. In the class, campers explore their own identities (identity development), their various contexts (social understanding), and learn about future opportunities and how they might prepare for them (developing a future orientation).

Evening and Weekend Enrichment

During the camp, students are given the opportunity to participate in evening enrichment classes, such as drama, chess, art, debate, and video game development. The 2 weeks of the camp allow for one weekend of organized activities. One weekend day is spent on a field trip to a regional historic site, science museum, or aquarium. A career conference for students and their parents occurs on the other weekend day. This conference is modeled after the Center’s large “Focusing on the Future” event. Campers are exposed to career opportunities related to mathematics and science. Representatives from medical groups, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), professionals from various STEM areas, and professors or researchers from William and Mary introduce STEM career possibilities to students, while parents learn strategies to help their children’s career development. Students learn about the long-term career ladders for various professions, as well as what classes to consider for high school as they prepare. Sessions for parents guide them to plan effective career development and academic supports for their children.

Social Network

Camp Launch allows students to find like-minded peers and build support networks of fellow campers. Students from low-income families are likely to be first generation college students, with limited access to others who have college experience. In this class and through their experience with the counselors, all of whom are college students or recent graduates, campers receive information and models to emulate. Campers have ample opportunity to build friendships with each other over the 2 weeks spent sharing a dorm room with a roommate, eating together in the dining hall, walking to and from classes across campus, and engaging in the academic and enrichment courses.

Partnership

Partnership with community and school districts are important for Camp Launch. School districts agree to select students based on the criteria provided, and to provide transportation on the first day and the last day of the camp from and to college and home. Museums in the community make it possible to have a field trip as a weekend activity without an admission fee. A local bus company that is supportive of Camp Launch provides transportation for the field trip at a minimal cost.

Research

Research is one of the critical components of Camp Launch, because there is a need to examine the effects of enrichment programs. Although a meta-analysis on the effects of enrichment programs showed that they have the greatest influence on middle school students’ socioemotional development, there are not enough studies on the effects of such programs (Kim, 2016). Research on Camp Launch helps provide information about evidence-based practice for disadvantaged students during the summer. Parents receive research permission forms in the confirmation packet for the camp, and students who have parents’ permission can participate in the research during the camp.

Assessment in all academic courses showed evidence of learning, with large effect sizes (η² range from .32 to .93) in pre–post assessments for every class in 2016. Assessments indicated an increased understanding of the foundational concepts in each of these courses, which were designed to provide high-level instruction on topics to which campers would not normally be exposed. Many of these middle school students do not have access to advanced curricula in their home schools. In postassessments, all students who participated in the camp described the need to begin planning early and recognized the need to make short- and long-term goals. As one student mentioned, future planning is “a long process” and students recognized that it is important to start making goals early.

Follow-up interviews were conducted with students to identify long-term effects of the camp experience. Students who attended the first year of Camp Launch, most of whom returned in 2013, were interviewed about their experiences once they had returned to school. Many positive outcomes were expressed in the follow-up interviews. For example, several campers expressed greater confidence in their academic abilities after the camp. One boy described his camp experience as a “confidence booster,” and several campers considered themselves to be more engaged in class, participating in discussions and raising their hands to ask questions or give comments, when they would previously have been silent. With its strong emphasis on the relationship between effort and goal achievement, Camp Launch encouraged work commitment among students. Students reported that, after attending the camp, they had begun to think about achieving good grades for college and even started to consider scholarships for college. One camper stated,

I want to go to school a little bit more and start reading a little more . . . I can now go without quitting things . . . because this camp showed me that you can do what you would like to do in life.

Another noted,

I used to give up when something was really hard, but in Robotics, when we didn’t get it right, he [the teacher] let us do it until we got it right. So now if I don’t get [something] the first time, I just take a break and come back and try again, then I get it.

Camp Launch was helpful to these campers’ social lives. In the follow-up interviews, half of the students mentioned greater openness to people after their Camp Launch experience. Many students who claimed they had been shy began interacting with friends and participating more in class after camp. Students mentioned that they became more “socially active.” One student stated,

I am more open since going to Camp Launch. Because people were there from all different places and I got to know them, this made me more willing to get to know new people and try new things at my school.

Among the 39 respondents to a 2015 follow-up survey of graduated campers, 82% reported they had stayed in contact with one or more of their fellow campers. These relationships provided both emotional and academic support. A majority of the graduated campers reported being encouraged by their camp friends to work hard. One camper reported that his Camp Launch friends “remind me to always challenge myself.” Others enrolled in more challenging classes than they might have otherwise selected, because they learned about the classes their Camp Launch friends were taking. Camp Launch has been successful in achieving its goal of developing positive peer relationships among campers.

Recruiting High-Quality Staff Members

Quality education in the program depends largely on finding and keeping good staff members. Although there are many characteristics of good teachers, it is clear that a person’s knowledge of content, teaching strategies, and this student population; enthusiasm for teaching and learning; and communication skills help the teacher be successful. Recruiting good teachers who have worked with gifted students allows students to have an optimal educational experience in the program. Networking through other gifted enrichment programs and professionals helped to recruit quality teachers. In addition to the teachers, enthusiastic and caring staff members were essential for the successful program. Being a camp counselor is challenging as well as rewarding. Camp counselors must have a desire to work with children and be committed to kindness, dignity, humanity, encouragement, and accessibility. The most successful recruiting strategies in Camp Launch were to encourage good counselors to come back year after year and to build a network with the counseling department at the university. Along with recruiting quality staff members, training was another effort to enhance the quality of staff members. The main topics of staff training included understanding the target population, understanding the developmental stages of middle school students, how to communicate with students in need, how to deal with students’ behaviors, discussion among teachers about the program curriculum to make improvement, and introduction to the policies and procedures of the program.

Communication With Districts

To participate in Camp Launch, districts are required to identify students based on the camp admission criteria, and to arrange transportation to and from the program. Although many gifted coordinators were eager to help out disadvantaged high-ability students, communication with districts on time is a challenge. Continuous follow-up and a persistent approach are helpful to confirm the transportation for students and to receive the selected students’ application forms for the program.

Communication With Parents

Camp Launch invites back rising eighth graders who participated in the camp the previous year, and confirming all the current contact information can be a challenge. We mail out information and documentation to each of the students’ homes, use the camp Facebook page as a way of delivering information, and contact school districts to confirm the updated information in case of returned mail.

Dealing With Homesickness

It is normal for first-time students in a residential program to be homesick. Being away from home for the first time and making adjustments to new surroundings can be a challenge for many middle school students. As a way of remedying homesickness, parents are encouraged to participate in the Focusing on the Future event, which happens after a week of camp life. Before and after the event, they can have time with their children, sharing stories of the camp. If parents are concerned about their children, they are encouraged to visit the camp and spend time with their children during dinner or lunch periods. Campers are not allowed to have cell phones during the 2 weeks, but students can establish times to call their parents as often as they like. Although one to three students each year experience homesickness, many of the students are too busy enjoying camp life to think about missing home.

Key Takeaway 1: Develop the Right Human Resources

Although the responsibilities for an individual vary by position, all staff members should have a strong commitment to serving children. Throughout the recruiting process, the most important qualification to be considered for the staff should be maturity and communication skills. All staff members should be able to collaborate to serve the goal of supporting high-ability, low-income middle school students. Among all the aspects of human resources, maturity of counselors has been the most important factor in the success of the program because counselors spend so much of their time with students. Each counselor supervises four to seven students while on the residential program, and it is imperative that they serve as strong role models for these impressionable adolescents. Most counselors have been undergraduate students who committed strongly to serving disadvantaged students and who proved their strong communication skills through the hiring process. The rapport developed with students while staying on campus together is critical to the program’s success. In evaluations and follow-up studies, students referred again and again to the kindness of counselors and their influence on students’ self-confidence and goal setting.

In hiring teachers for academic content, program developers should seek those who have experience teaching low-income, high-ability students. It is necessary for teachers to have an understanding of the target population. In addition, teachers should know various teaching strategies to deal with individual differences and should have strong classroom management skills. For example, one teacher required support in dealing with students’ aggressive behaviors in the classroom, such as pushing or inappropriate verbal communication, which were hampering a positive learning environment. Classroom management can be a challenging issue, and each teacher’s ability to deal positively with disciplinary issues was an imperative.

Key Takeaway 2: Be Equipped With Well-Trained Teachers and Appropriate Curriculum for High-Ability Students

Camp Launch’s primary purpose was educative. To appropriately challenge and engage these high-ability, low-income students, the curriculum selected or developed for the camp was critical. In a review of Javits grants and other curriculum studies focused on high ability, CLED, and low-income learners, Stambaugh and Chandler (2012) delineated several essential elements for designing a curricular program. According to their suggestions, curriculum for high-ability students should be research based, providing scaffolding through questioning and thinking models, acceleration with support, and opportunities for real-world projects and problem solving. Teachers should model positive communication techniques and metacognitive skills while cultivating a classroom climate that promotes diversity of ideas and opinions. They should set appropriately high expectations and provide support, assessing growth in a variety of ways. The curriculum materials should include characters, examples, and situations related to the students’ cultures. These elements were the basis for developing new courses or modifying existing curriculum to be used in Camp Launch.

Key Takeaway 3: Develop a Network for Collaboration

Cooperation and support from the university and community were important factors contributing to the success of Camp Launch. For example, university faculty members volunteered to provide camp staff with training that emphasized cultural competence, understanding our target population, and understanding middle school students’ psychological development. University library staff offered a lesson to students in how to explore potential colleges using the library’s facilities and their large collection of iPads. A university nutritionist spoke with campers about choosing a well-balanced diet. Networking among university and community professionals allowed Camp Launch to provide sessions about future career possibilities and guiding parents in supporting their children’s development. Field trips were made possible by discounted entry fees at several museums that endorsed Camp Launch’s objectives. A local transportation company has strongly supported the program for the past 4 years, providing buses for the field trips and charging only a minimum maintenance fee. These supports from the community and university contributed to the program’s success. The diverse learning opportunities for low-income, high-ability students could not be achieved without university, community, school district, and parent collaboration.

Key Takeaway 4: Be Prepared for Your Population

All the staff members, including coordinators, teachers, counselors, volunteers, and nurses, must be prepared for students from low-income backgrounds who have unique needs. None of the students in the camp had experience being on a college campus, in a structured environment with a whole-day schedule, and in a residential program. From the experience of 4 years of program facilitation, culturally sensitive teachers for our target population proved to be an essential element. These teachers could provide the best learning environment, embracing features of the students’ cultural background into their pedagogical practices (Howard, 2001). Also, counselors and program administrators need to understand the students’ unique needs, such as transportation issues, safety-related concerns, peer issues, and counseling needs stemming from their family environment. The program could not be successful without a willingness to consider these concerns that may be outside the experience of the staff.

Key Takeaway 5: Teach Parents About the Academic Nature of the Camp

Although parents were informed prior to the start of the program that the camp is an academic program, some students were not ready for academic classes. For example, one student’s parents did not recognize that it was important for their child, who took medicine during the academic year for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), to bring the medicine or to inform camp staff about their child’s condition. This caused many difficult situations, particularly during the academic classes. Parents need to set the tone for their children’s expectations of the camp.

The emphasis on academic rigor and the opportunity to be with intellectual peers in a safe setting on a college campus, in combination with our belief in these students’ exceptional potential, creates an atmosphere that motivates campers to greater achievement. The STEM classes are the heart of the camp, and this should be conveyed to parents during the application process. Some participating districts request initial parent orientation to the program administrators as a part of their recruiting process, and these meetings with parents provide quality time to give an overview of the camp.