|Project Name:||Gaining Equity through Mathematics Achievement (GEM)|
|Project Contact:||Angela Mike, (412) 338-8090|
|Mailing Address:||School District of Pittsburgh|
341 S. Bellefield Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Population Served: 348 Career and Technical Education students over a 4-year period.
The School District of Pittsburgh, in partnership with Smart Futures and the Carnegie Science Center's Girls, Math and Science Partnership (GMSP), will develop and implement a four-year intensive program entitled Gaining Equity through Mathematics (GEM) Achievement that follows participating female students from grades 9-12 as they complete one of the seven math-rich CTE programs. With the overarching goal of affording female students equal opportunities for success in high-priority occupations (jobs in demand by employers at the state and regional levels) that will be among the highest-paying career pathways of the future, our specific GEM goals are: Goal 1: To attract greater numbers of female students to targeted mathematics-rich CTE programs that prepare them to enter non-traditional occupations. Goal 2: To retain a higher proportion of female students in mathematics-rich CTE programs that prepare them to enter non-traditional occupations. Goals 3: To increase the mathematics achievement of female students in the targeted mathematics-rich CTE programs. Below are the corresponding objectives or our goals:
- Obj. 1: Develop a marketing plan that is designed to recruit female students to enter one of seven targeted mathematics-rich CTE programs. (Goal 1)
- Obj. 2: Launch a marketing campaign to recruit female students to enter one of seven targeted math-rich CTE programs. (Goal 1)
- Obj. 3: Provide students enrolled in the GEM Achievement program with a mentor for each of the four years of their high school careers. (Goals 2 and 3)
- Obj. 4: Provide GEM students with an opportunity to participate in the Girls, Math and Science Partnership's (GMSP) programs that engage them in math and science immersion activities utilizing high-end technology, group-work and hands-on exploration. (Goals 2 and 3)
- Obj. 5: Provide each GEM student with her own e-portfolio to use as a tool to measure and demonstrate her growth in application of PA's Academic Standards for Career Education and Work. (Goals 2 and 3)
- Obj. 6: Provide teachers for targeted CTE programs with professional development on integrating the GMSP's nine techniques (for engaging girls in math, science and engineering) into instruction. (Goals 2 and 3)
- Obj. 7: Provide teachers in targeted CTE programs with ongoing, job-embedded professional development on integrating PA's Academic Standards for Mathematics with instruction. (Goal 3)
- Obj. 8: Increase by 5% the percentage of GEM participating students scoring in the “proficient” or “advanced” categories on the 11th grade PA System of School Assessment (PSSA) in mathematics in comparison to their scores on the 8th grade PSSA in math. (Goal 3)
Gem will include the following components: (1) a comprehensive marketing campaign; (2) eMentoring; (3) GMSP math and science immersion experiences; (4) teacher professional development on GMSP's nine research-based techniques that can be used to engage the sustain girls' interest in math, science and engineering; (5) e-portfolios; and (6) monthly Afterschool gem Power Sessions that will include talks given by successful female STEM professionals.