About the BOOST Program

BOOST (Building Opportunities and Overtures in Science and Technology) is a multi-dimensional program for elementary and middle school teachers and students, designed to excite under-represented minority (URM) students about science and inspire them to pursue careers in medicine and other biomedical professions.

BOOST Goals

This unique partnership between Duke University Medical Center, Durham Public Schools, and the North Carolina School of Science and Math aims to:
1. improve the science performance of URM students,
2. upgrade the content of the pre-college science curriculum, and, ultimately,
3. increase the numbers of URM students prepared for professional education in the advanced sciences.

Programs Offered

We plan to achieve these goals by providing a range of programs:

For Educators: Professional development programs, including teacher training workshops, a summer science workshop, science/research forum, middle school environment simulation, and classroom support.

For Fifth and Sixth Grade Students: Classroom activities, research projects under the guidance of mentors, field trips, a summer science workshop, and activities designed to smooth the transition from elementary to middle school.

For Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows: Opportunities to mentor students, teach and provide support in classrooms, and help guide science-based field trips.

BOOST is funded in large part through a multi-year grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Why are programs like BOOST needed?

Our country currently faces an undeniable need to proactively advance minority students into careers in the biomedical sciences. Although under-represented minorities (URMs) - African Americans, Latino Americans, and Native Americans - currently make up 25% of the U.S. population, only 7 to 8% of practicing physicians come from under-represented communities. Moreover, the American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges have found that URM health care providers provide a disproportionate percentage of health care to under-represented and underserved communities. Applications from URM students to medical and dental schools, which peaked in the mid-1990s after aggressive efforts from the public and private sector, have declined consistently over the past seven years.

Our country needs more qualified, committed health care providers who hail from under-represented and underserved communities to provide quality medical care for our nation's growing URM population.

Why start in Durham?

Durham, North Carolina is an ideal place to develop and demonstrate BOOST's strategy to advance minorities into the sciences because of this city's:

• demographic composition,
• clear need, based on documented poor student performance,
• commitment to implementing this program, by both public and private educational organizations, and the existence of several effective pipeline programs,
• presence of two excellent teacher education organizations willing to collaborate, and
• outstanding biomedical research resources, most notably, Duke University and Duke University Medical Center.

Durham's socio-economically and demographically diverse population makes it a perfect place to launch the BOOST program. Of its 227,000 residents, 39.5% are African American, 7.6% Latino American, and 48.1% of white non-Hispanic background (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). From 1990 and 2000, the Latino population in North Carolina grew the fastest of any in the country. Over this time period, the Latino population in Durham County alone rose 729%. In the last two years, the number of Latino students in Durham Public Schools has increased from 1,782 to 2,743; the majority of these students' parents are literate neither in English nor in their native tongue.

Because an estimated 19.4% of Durham's children live below the poverty line, Durham's elementary and middle schools include a sizeable socio-economically disadvantaged segment. Nearly half of all elementary school students in the Durham Public Schools qualify for free or reduced lunch (FRL), including a large portion of students from Hispanic or African American backgrounds. Although low-income status tends to be under-reported in middle school, we estimate a similar portion of URM students in middle school would qualify for FRL.

Durham Public Schools (DPS) has documented an urgent need to improve the performance of its minority students. On the most recent end-of-grade tests in grades 3 through 8, 64.2% of black students and 59.8% of Hispanic students scored at grade level in reading, as compared with 91.6% and 91.2% for white and Asian students, respectively. In math, 69.9% of black students and 67.7% of Hispanics, as compared with 93.3% and 95.2% for whites and Asians, tested at grade level (Durham Herald-Sun, 9/13/02). These alarmingly low results have prompted the DPS to develop a comprehensive plan for closing the achievement gap between white and minority students, and to commit to achieving this goal by the end of the 2006/07 school year.

BOOST is also fortunate to draw upon the teacher professional development experience of the North Carolina School of Science and Math (NCSSM), a Durham-based public, residential high school that draws the best and brightest students from around the state to participate in a challenging science- and math-based curriculum. NCSMM has an extensive history of providing training, follow-up evaluation, and support to teachers in North Carolina.

Why focus on the fifth and sixth grades?

Studies show that the transition from elementary school to middle school is a critical time in determining whether students' interest in science will grow or wane. In the Durham Public Schools, data has shown that while URM students score significantly below expectation in elementary and middle school, there is an acute drop-off in performance as they move from the elementary to the middle school environment. At this transition point, both African American and Hispanic students fall well below their majority peers in performance and, presumably, interest in and preparation for advancing in academics.

Based upon the marked decline in student academic performance between the fifth and sixth grades, we have decided to focus BOOST's initial efforts on these two grades. We have chosen Durham's Rogers-Herr Middle School, Githens Middle School, and Brogden Middle Schoolfor sixth grade activities, and Lakewood, E.K. Powe, Forest View, and George Watts Montessori Elementary Schools for fifth grade activities. These schools have high populations of URM students, diverse student populations that include many low-income students, leadership by receptive principals committed to helping the project succeed, and dedicated teachers willing to work with the project to achieve its goals. BOOST will fill an unmet need in these schools for intensive science curriculum enhancement and teacher/student support aimed at improving URM performance in, and continuation with, science education.

Through BOOST, we aim to:

• Elevate fifth and sixth grade students' science performance as they transition from elementary to middle school, by establishing a culture that heightens student participation, expectations, and accountability, and that prepares fifth grade students for the middle school structure and environment.
• Teach fifth grade students learning skills that will enable them to meet sixth grade academic requirements and to perform at or above grade level in middle school science.
• Give fifth and sixth grade teachers education, experience, and support in incorporating inquiry-based learning into their science curricula.
• Increase first-hand exposure, of both students and teachers, to the concepts, content, learning strategies, and thought processes that will allow students to excel in science.
• Enhance the Durham Public Schools science curriculum with current knowledge in and latest applications of science, with real-world opportunities for students and teachers to experience biomedical science in action.

Why is Duke University and its Medical Center involved?

Duke University Medical Center, one of the nation's premier academic medical institutions, has a worldwide reputation for excellence in cutting-edge biomedical research, educating physicians through superior academic teaching and curricular models, providing excellent clinical care, and leading innovation in health care policy.

Duke University and its Medical Center bring tremendous resources and commitment to the BOOST program, both by providing access to the vast academic, medical, and scientific resources of our institution, and through our extensive experience in promoting educational and professional diversity across all of our programs.

Duke University Medical Center and the Duke School of Medicine take pride in our history of addressing and promoting diversity in our student body, faculty and staff, and in the population we serve. While training some of the nation's most productive and influential physician-researchers, the medical school also maintains a longstanding commitment to service - including a commitment to address issues of relevance to a demographically changing population.

Over the past three decades, Duke University Medical Center has made many strides toward promoting the presence of under-represented minorities in the medical student body, house staff, faculty, and clinical and basic science departments. Accomplishments include establishing scholarships and support programs for gifted URM students; development of a plan to increase career opportunities for African American faculty; and collaborations with Durham Public Schools through a statewide program that identifies and accelerates high school students interested in biomedical science careers. The Medical Center has also implemented programs to involve the local community in medical care and medical education, and has linked medical school efforts to University-wide efforts in minority and community-based health.

One of our most successful programs has been the Duke Summer Biomedical Science Institute, a Minority Medical Education Program site funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, that has provided Duke with a venue to intensively prepare talented undergraduate students from under-represented minorities and underserved populations. The program, now in its second year, enrolls 125 students each summer in a rigorous six-week science and math curriculum that also reinforces students' skills in critical thinking, oral and written communication, and test-taking. The program will provide yet another group of role-models for students participating in the Summer Science Immersion component of BOOST.
As a result of our diversity initiatives, there has been a dramatic change in the composition of our Duke School of Medicine student body. From 1993 to 2001, the percentage of URM medical students has increased from 9% to 24%. The numbers of URM house staff (residents and fellows) have increased from 3% to 10%, and our percentage of URM faculty has risen from 2% to 4%.

Duke University remains committed to the diversification effort over the long-term. We have recently secured a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation which will increase this institutional commitment and minority advancement initiatives centered at Duke. The BOOST program will rest within an overarching institutional structure for the promotion of diversity in the biomedical professions. As such, it represents a key institutional priority and will receive the firmest support of the Medical Center leadership.

As an active and involved member of the Durham, North Carolina community, Duke University has many strong links to the Durham Public Schools and the surrounding neighborhoods, including those fostered by the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership.

How will we know if BOOST works?

To evaluate and enhance the BOOST program and ensure that we continue to meet our short- and long-term goals, BOOST features a comprehensive database of participants that will allow for long-range tracking of students' involvement in science, study of the program's impact on participants' science grades and their interest in science, and the impact on teachers' skills and curricular content.