Growth of Innovation: Saturday Academies

The article presents a mixed-methods assessment of an educational intervention proposed by a partnership between Pulaski County Special School District, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Philander Smith College, and plaintiffs in a longstanding federal desegregation lawsuit. The Donaldson Scholars Saturday Academy is part of a plan, approved by the Federal Court’s Eastern District of Arkansas in 2014, designed to improve educational achievement of all Pulaski County Special School District students with special emphasis on improving academic performance of African American and other at-risk students. Composed of eight all-day sessions during the academic year focused on relationship building, academic rigor, fun, and college graduation, goals of the Saturday Academy include developing better cognitive and noncognitive skills to succeed in college and facilitating college graduation by eliminating the need for developmental courses. Students completing the program and enrolling in one of the two partner colleges receive a $10,000 scholarship. Preliminary findings are impressive.

Teacher to Teacher: Truss(t)ing Triangles

Often middle school students see no connection between geometry and real life. The following activity was designed to help make this connection for seventh-grade students participating in a Saturday academy. The activity centers on an elementary investigation of the rigidity characteristic of triangles, a concept seldom mentioned in K-8 mathematic textbooks but essential to the construction of structures that have to absorb tremendous forces and not collapse. Although this activity was completed outside the traditional mathematics class, it can be adapted to a school schedule and completed over two or more class periods.