1) Elementary and Secondary Education
Knopke HJ,
Northrup RS, Hartman JA.
BioPrep. A
premedical program for rural high school students.
JAMA 1986 Nov 14;256(18):2548-51
PMID:
3773155
To address physician maldistribution in Alabama and the Southeast region. The
University of Alabama established the Biomedical Sciences Preparation Program (BioPrep) in
five rural high schools. Its purpose is to help rural, disadvantaged high school students
develop academically and socially so that they will be motivated and able to enroll in and
progress successfully through college, specifically in pre-health professional curricula.
It aims to develop their desire to return eventually to rural areas of Alabama as
professionals. Project students are compared with two control groups. Performance on the
American College Testing Program college entrance examination revealed significantly
higher achievement by the project students. The project students also chose professional
careers earlier and more frequently than matched high school students not receiving this
special program, but similar to medical students and premedical students. The implications
of the project for increasing the size of the rural, disadvantaged student applicant pool
are discussed.
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