2020-2021: Building Collaboration with School Community
University of California Irvine began its partnership with Marco Forster Middle School and Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano in the summer of 2018. This partnership was made possible after a generous donor saw the important work going on at both sites to advance college access and persistence for first-generation students. Marco Forster Middle School is located in San Juan Capistrano, with a student population that is predominantly Latinx. A large portion (over 60% of students) qualifies for free or reduced lunch and nearly a quarter of all students are classified as English Language Learners, with Spanish as their primary language. About 14% are in special education and 27% are classified as homeless according to federal guidelines. Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano is a college access and persistence program that supports underserved students starting in middle school through college graduation, and recruits middle school students exclusively from Marco Forster Middle School.
At both sites, research topics have been determined collaboratively, after many conversations with site stakeholders. Research thus far at Marco Forster has been focused on school climate, including the creation and distribution of a school-wide survey to better understand staff and students perceptions’ of the school’s strengths and areas for improvement, as well as their sense of school belonging. After analyzing this quantitative and qualitative data, UCI researchers have been working alongside school leaders to disseminate these data to staff, students, and parents. School stakeholders are excited about the potential to use these data to inform both future research projects and school improvement efforts. Currently, targeted reports are being drafted to share with various staff groups about the feedback collected from students that can then be used for organizational change. Additionally, the UCI research team has been supporting Marco Forster’s Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports team through measurement and evaluation assistance of new initiatives.
At Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano, the UCI team has been building relationships with program staff and learning more about all aspects of the organization through consistent participation in meetings and programming. Early research projects have sought to help Breakthrough measure the impact of certain program aspects, through modifying the organization’s student application to allow for data collection, as well as creating and distributing surveys pre and post their summer programming. Additionally, youth participatory action research has begun with a selected group of students to help them learn about the research process, gain valuable academic skills, and direct their own research inquiry. This project is particularly exciting as it allows youth to be co-researchers alongside the UCI team. All the data collected from these different projects will be utilized by organizational staff for program improvement.
For further information about Marco Forster Middle School, please visit https://mfms.schoolloop.com/. For more information about Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano, please visit http://www.breakthroughsjc.org/.
University of California Irvine began its partnership with Marco Forster Middle School and Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano in the summer of 2018. This partnership was made possible after a generous donor saw the important work going on at both sites to advance college access and persistence for first-generation students. Marco Forster Middle School is located in San Juan Capistrano, with a student population that is predominantly Latinx. A large portion (over 60% of students) qualifies for free or reduced lunch and nearly a quarter of all students are classified as English Language Learners, with Spanish as their primary language. About 14% are in special education and 27% are classified as homeless according to federal guidelines. Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano is a college access and persistence program that supports underserved students starting in middle school through college graduation, and recruits middle school students exclusively from Marco Forster Middle School.
At both sites, research topics have been determined collaboratively, after many conversations with site stakeholders. Research thus far at Marco Forster has been focused on school climate, including the creation and distribution of a school-wide survey to better understand staff and students perceptions’ of the school’s strengths and areas for improvement, as well as their sense of school belonging. After analyzing this quantitative and qualitative data, UCI researchers have been working alongside school leaders to disseminate these data to staff, students, and parents. School stakeholders are excited about the potential to use these data to inform both future research projects and school improvement efforts. Currently, targeted reports are being drafted to share with various staff groups about the feedback collected from students that can then be used for organizational change. Additionally, the UCI research team has been supporting Marco Forster’s Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports team through measurement and evaluation assistance of new initiatives.
At Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano, the UCI team has been building relationships with program staff and learning more about all aspects of the organization through consistent participation in meetings and programming. Early research projects have sought to help Breakthrough measure the impact of certain program aspects, through modifying the organization’s student application to allow for data collection, as well as creating and distributing surveys pre and post their summer programming. Additionally, youth participatory action research has begun with a selected group of students to help them learn about the research process, gain valuable academic skills, and direct their own research inquiry. This project is particularly exciting as it allows youth to be co-researchers alongside the UCI team. All the data collected from these different projects will be utilized by organizational staff for program improvement.
For further information about Marco Forster Middle School, please visit https://mfms.schoolloop.com/. For more information about Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano, please visit http://www.breakthroughsjc.org/.