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Abstract

Forty-five sixth-grade students from Pasadena Unified School District who had scored in the 80–96 percentiles on the California Achievement Test (CAT) participated in a Skills Reinforcement Project (SRP) designed to increase achievement in mathematics and language arts. A matched Comparison Group also participated in this study. The subjects' ethnic, racial and socioeconomic composition mirrored the overall population of the Pasadena Unified School District which has a high proportion of blacks and Hispanics, as well as socioeconomically disadvantaged children. The SRP had three phases of academic instruction—classes on Saturdays in the spring and fall and a two-week summer residential component. Both the SRP and Comparison Groups were pretested and posttested with the CAT, with the SRP Group making significantly greater gains in mathematics, but not in reading. As a result, many SRP students qualified for screening into Pasadena Public Schools' program for the gifted without recourse to affirmative action measures.

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The Skills Reinforcement Project (SRP): An Academic Program for High Potential Minority Youth

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