High Ability, Rural, and Poor: Lessons From Project Aspire and Implications for School Counselors

Abstract

This article describes a grant-funded effort to improve the lives of academically able middle and high school students living in rural poverty. The program, Project Aspire, attempts to increase the number of these children in the most rigorous math and science coursework available in their schools. To that end, Project Aspire assists 14 school corporations by helping faculty in those settings increase the level of rigor of their courses and by offering Advanced Placement (AP) courses through multiple platforms of distance education technologies. A primary component of the project is the attempt to assist the school counselors’ work with their students, in hopes that the students’ lives will be improved. To prepare the counselors, ongoing training has been provided. This paper reports an analysis of the ideas and experiences shared during the lengthy training sessions with 21 school counselors. From the analysis and a literature review, the authors offer in three tables concise information for effectively working with high-ability middle and high school students living in rural poverty.