FAST Program Reduces African American Student Mobility

October 18, 2013

The Families and Schools Together (FAST) program has been shown to reduce the number of students who change schools for reasons other than grade promotion. Developed at UW-Madison by Dr. Lynn McDonald, FAST is an intensive eight-week, multifamily after-school program designed to empower parents, promote child resilience and improve relations of trust and shared expectations within families and among parents, families and school personnel. Data from a five-year study showed that FAST reduced mobility of African American students by 29 percent. Formerly at UW-Madison, Ruth López Turley is a co-principal investigator for the study and an associate professor of sociology at Rice University. Turley acknowledged that FAST might have little impact on students whose families are moving for economic or personal reasons. But if students are changing schools because of dissatisfaction with their current school, the program can have a significant impact on some groups. More information is available here.