Ron McBride

Sharing the Resources: Electronic Outreach Programs

Rural schools struggle with limited resources including an inadequate curriculum, lack of qualified teachers and little access to programming usually available to larger metropolitan schools. Such inequities have prevented many rural students from pursuing scholarship opportunities and entrance to institutions with restricted admissions. The Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts attempts to remediate the problem by serving rural students throughout the state with a distance learning network, Project Outreach, which delivers special classes that otherwise would be unavailable. The system uses interactive computer technology to teach advanced content courses in math, foreign language, science, and survey of the arts. The effectiveness of the outreach program was evaluated as to its potential to provide courses at a distance to rural students in Louisiana. Results of the study included a significant gain in scores between pre-test and posttest scores on a national calculus exam, and open-ended responses revealed favorable comments toward the system from its participants. The distance learning network is seen as one method for connecting rural students to the superior programs offered by special schools.