Math Corps Replication Site Prospective Findings

The Wayne State University Math Corps is a mathematics enrichment and mentoring program that operates during summers and on Saturdays. The curriculum and the pedagogies in this informal learning program have documented success of supporting youths' mathematics learning as well as raising achievement levels in school. Through rigorous research and evaluation, this project seeked to analyze and understand the nature, extent, and reasons for Math Corps' success with youth learning in Detroit as well as the processes of program replication in three sites: Cleveland, OH; Utica, NY; and Philadelphia, PA. The project's research and evaluation program had several components. An anthropological study, carried out over four years, used various methods to identify core elements of the Math Corps and its culture. The program was successfully implemented at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Drexel University in Philadelphia, and Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, NY. It concluded that all three replicate sites had in fact reproduced the Math Corps' culture with a high degree of fidelity. In its prospective study, Mathematica evaluated the academic outcomes at each site and found strong results across the board in attendance, homework completion, and test scores. Students made large and statistically significant gains on the Math Corps' exam in every year of the project, with replicate site test scores rising from 38% pre-test averages to 75% post-test averages.