Abstract
Improving the academic performance of at-risk high school students has proven difficult, often calling for an extended day, extended school year, and other expensive measures. Here we report the results of a program for at-risk 9th and 10th graders in Binghamton, New York, called the Regents Academy that takes place during the normal school day and year. The design of the program is informed by the evolutionary dynamics of cooperation and learning, in general and for our species as a unique product of biocultural evolution. Not only did the Regents Academy students outperform their comparison group in a randomized control design, but they performed on a par with the average high school student in Binghamton on state-mandated exams. All students can benefit from the social environment provided for at-risk students at the Regents Academy, which is within the reach of most public school districts.
Highlights
Improving the performance of at-risk students is difficult at any age, but especially for at-risk teenagers, whose life challenges, personal habits, and social networks are often firmly entrenched [1,2]
We present the results from the first year of the program, where Regents Academy (RA) students performed better than a comparison group that experienced the normal high school routine in a randomized control design, but they performed on a par with the average high school student
For the students who completed the school year, grades in the different class subjects were not significantly different within either the RA or Binghamton’s single high school (BHS) comparison groups (264 ANOVA, F(3, 378) = 2.29, p = .078), so we report the combined grade point averages as our outcome variable
Summary
Improving the performance of at-risk students is difficult at any age, but especially for at-risk teenagers, whose life challenges, personal habits, and social networks are often firmly entrenched [1,2]. The problems posed by age are illustrated by the Promise Academy, a school associated with the Harlem Children’s Zone, which started in 2004 with an incoming 1st grade and 6th grade class [3]. The Promise Academy has since improved its success with the older students, but only with an intensive effort that includes an extended day, extended school year, meal and healthcare programs, and so on [4]. Other successful school programs for at-risk teenagers are intensive (e.g., [5,6,7])
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