This fall, high school students around the country will be able to add a Dartmouth class to their college transcripts, thanks to a partnership with the National Education Equity Lab.
The national nonprofit connects low-income Title I-eligible high schools—that is, schools in high-poverty areas qualifying for federal support—with top universities to offer students access to rigorous academic experiences that will help expand their horizons and prepare them for college.
The result is a win-win for the Ed Equity Lab's higher education partners, the high schools, and the students, says President Sian Leah Beilock, who was sold on the group's work when she was president of Barnard College.
"This partnership is an extension of our effort to identify the most promising students who are thriving in environments where historically there may be more talent than opportunity," President Beilock says. "It is critical that schools like Dartmouth expand access to our world-class education to students from all backgrounds."
Since its founding in 2019, the Ed Equity Lab has reached more than 40,000 students in 32 states in 500 high schools nationwide, offering courses developed by partners from Arizona State, Brown, Cornell, Georgetown, Howard, Morehouse, Spelman, Stanford, Wesleyan, and other colleges and universities.
Dartmouth will be offering an adaptation of a popular undergraduate course, Psychology 6: Introduction to Neuroscience, a prerequisite for the neuroscience major.
"I can relate to these students being intimidated by college-level courses. I was a first-generation college student—the first college graduate in my family," says course faculty leader Shawn Winter, a lecturer and senior instructor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. "I can understand their perspective on how overwhelming college can be and the barrier of learning the academic system and all of its unspoken rules."
Winter says that while his first goal is to make sure the high school students learn the course content, he also wants them to know that a college education, even at the most elite level, is within reach. "I made it. I'm teaching at Dartmouth, in the Ivy League. I want to show them that it's possible."
Winter, who has frequently taught Psychology 6 in person to undergraduates, is working with a team from Learning Design and Innovation at Dartmouth to adapt the course to a hybrid format that scaffolds its content for learners who are new to the intensity of a college classroom.
The high school students will receive the same course material—and meet the same high standards—as undergraduates in the department's in-person classes. The key, says Winter, is that the high school students will also have ample support as they learn how to learn at a college level.
Students will enroll in the course like any other class offered at their high school and attend in-person sessions as a cohort with a facilitating classroom teacher, watching Winter's pre-recorded video lectures and completing the assigned readings and hands-on activities throughout the semester. They will have regular short writing assignments and weekly quizzes to assess their understanding of the material.
"We're giving the students and the high schools a lot of flexibility to decide what works best for them," says Majo Brito Páez, a learning designer in Learning Design and Innovation who is working closely with Winter to develop the course. "Maybe it makes sense for a group to watch a specific lecture together. Maybe it makes sense for them to break this topic down in discussion. So the content will all be there, but the order in which they're doing things might vary."
The students will meet weekly by Zoom with Dartmouth undergraduate teaching fellows, who will lead discussions and other activities and field questions with the students, with regular guidance from Winter. The teaching fellows will do the bulk of the grading based on rubrics Winter will provide, and with close supervision from him.
The teaching fellows play a crucial role as "near-peer" mentors. "I speak about the material as an expert, but the teaching fellows will have a similar level of scientific fluency as the high school students, and so they can explain things from a more approachable perspective," Winter says.
The redesigned course will ultimately benefit Dartmouth students, says Erin DeSilva, associate provost for digital and online learning and interim director the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning. "The same supports that we're building for high school students can also help undergraduates," she says.
Some of these supports might include incorporating learning fellows, pre-recorded lectures, and flexible ways for students to access complex information.
"Reconceptualizing the way I do the class is really exciting. It's going to help me reduce the amount of content that is delivered through lecture when I teach Psych 6 again in person," Winter says. "Instead I will be able to offer more opportunities for peer-learning through discussion, experiential activities, and a deeper understanding of the topics that interest the students through active learning, where students take the lead on the topics we further explore."
In addition to the experience and support the program gives students taking the class, the partnership with the Education Equity Lab will also help Dartmouth build relationships with schools in underserved communities, which in turn will help the institution as it recruits the most talented students to Hanover, says Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Kathryn Bezella.
"Partnerships like this are a new, cutting-edge version of recruitment, allowing a Dartmouth education to be known and experienced first-hand by hundreds of students in school districts across the country," Bezella says.
"Tapping into the Ed Equity Lab network will introduce Dartmouth to hundreds of students who we may never have otherwise met. Handing someone a well-crafted brochure pales in comparison to actually inviting students to participate in the kind of transformational learning that goes on here. I am thrilled to consider how many bright minds may be introduced to Dartmouth through this partnership," Bezella says.
"The National Education Equity Lab is founded on the belief that talent is evenly distributed, and opportunity is not. We are thrilled that Dartmouth will be powerfully helping to change that," says Leslie Cornfeld, the founder and CEO of the Ed Equity Lab. "We've seen first-hand the impact our higher education partners can have when they extend opportunity beyond their gates—and help enable the American Dream."
Cornfeld notes that two Dartmouth alumni help lead the Ed Equity Lab nationwide, Ariel Murphy Bedford '12, chief people and impact officer, and Cote Theriault '13, senior manager of data and research. We have "never been prouder" of our alma mater, they said.