Gates Foundation Awards $1.8 Million To 2 Community Colleges In CT
Dom
students must take remedial courses in math or English before they can
start taking college-level courses."
===========================
http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-college-remedial-0623.artjun23,0,3713950.story
Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation Awards $1.8 Million To 2 Community
Colleges In State
By GRACE E. MERRITT, The Hartford Courant
June 23, 2009
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and MDC Inc. gave $1.8 million
to Connecticut and two of its community colleges Monday to expand
remedial education programs and improve graduation rates among low-
income and minority students.
The money will allow Housatonic and Norwalk community colleges to
build on innovative programs designed to bring students up to speed
quickly, such as an online math course that allows students to
progress at their own pace and a three-week math refresher course at
the start of the semester.
Currently, about 70 percent of Connecticut's community college
students must take remedial courses in math or English before they can
start taking college-level courses.
These remedial courses typically don't count toward graduation
requirements and can frustrate students, sometimes prompting them to
drop out. Only 36 percent of full- and part-time community college
students in Connecticut graduate within six years.
The Gates Foundation said it was intrigued by some of the approaches
Connecticut is taking to address the remedial problem and smooth the
path for students.
Among four new programs at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport,
for example, is a bridging program with area high schools that
encourages students to continue taking math classes in their senior
year. High school juniors take a placement test that shows them where
they would end up in math and English at community college if they
enrolled that day.
Other initiatives include more thorough student advising and tracking,
embedding student tutors in classrooms and promoting study groups. The
idea is to better engage students, many of whom work full time, with
classmates and give them a stronger connection to college, said Mary
Anne Cox, assistant chancellor for Connecticut's community colleges.
"It's really a testament to the state of Connecticut and to Housatonic
and Norwalk community colleges that they received this grant. They
have some of the most promising programs out there," said Marie
Groark, a spokeswoman for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In addition to Connecticut, the Gates Foundation gave grants to four
other states — Florida, Ohio, Texas and Virginia — to expand their
programs and policies and to compare results.
maest...@hotmail.com
philanthropists and sad because they are the ones to acknowledge the
ways to move education forward and not the government. The Department
of Education might want to simply hire them as a consulting firm so
they can put in programs to reduce the remedial student rates to
zero.
Greg from eTeachers.info
Rowley
Martin
Dom wrote:
> "Currently, about 70 percent of Connecticut's community college
> students must take remedial courses in math or English before they can
> start taking college-level courses."
What state has the least amount of students who need to take remedial
courses like these? There is always some article on the bad end of the
spectrum... what about promoting the state with the best percentage....
> ===========================
>
> http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-college-remedial-0623.artjun23,0,3713950.story
>
> Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation Awards $1.8 Million To 2 Community
> Colleges In State
> By GRACE E. MERRITT, The Hartford Courant
>
> June 23, 2009
>
> The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and MDC Inc. gave $1.8 million
> to Connecticut and two of its community colleges Monday to expand
> remedial education programs and improve graduation rates among low-
> income and minority students.
I sort of remember commenting on another similar article sometime around
the first of this year... wasn't that Connecticut too?... I wonder what
ever happened with that....
> The money will allow Housatonic and Norwalk community colleges to
> build on innovative programs designed to bring students up to speed
> quickly, such as an online math course that allows students to
> progress at their own pace and a three-week math refresher course at
> the start of the semester.
The high school where I was at tried an online credit recovery program
for a couple years - self-paced courses.... it eventually got dumped cuz
too many kids were cheating to pass the online exams.... apparently it
wasn't all that hard to fool the computer programs.....
> Currently, about 70 percent of Connecticut's community college
> students must take remedial courses in math or English before they can
> start taking college-level courses.
>
> These remedial courses typically don't count toward graduation
> requirements and can frustrate students, sometimes prompting them to
> drop out. Only 36 percent of full- and part-time community college
> students in Connecticut graduate within six years.
Frustrate how? If the remedial courses are frustrating, wouldn't the
regular courses be even more so?
> The Gates Foundation said it was intrigued by some of the approaches
> Connecticut is taking to address the remedial problem and smooth the
> path for students.
>
> Among four new programs at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport,
> for example, is a bridging program with area high schools that
> encourages students to continue taking math classes in their senior
> year. High school juniors take a placement test that shows them where
> they would end up in math and English at community college if they
> enrolled that day.
>
> Other initiatives include more thorough student advising and tracking,
> embedding student tutors in classrooms and promoting study groups. The
> idea is to better engage students, many of whom work full time, with
> classmates and give them a stronger connection to college, said Mary
> Anne Cox, assistant chancellor for Connecticut's community colleges.
>
> "It's really a testament to the state of Connecticut and to Housatonic
> and Norwalk community colleges that they received this grant. They
> have some of the most promising programs out there," said Marie
> Groark, a spokeswoman for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
What's the employment outlook like in Connecticut? Will there be jobs
for these students when they graduate? Jobs related to whatever they are
studying in college?
Martin
> In addition to Connecticut, the Gates Foundation gave grants to four
> other states � Florida, Ohio, Texas and Virginia � to expand their
maest...@hotmail.com
point out the bad. It's easy. Far more time and promotion is needed to
put something good out there. Here's something good... Far more
teachers are becoming Principals now. Minus the growing pains, it
should be a very progressive next ten years for the schools.
Rowley
Hmm... more teachers > principals..... I could see that going either way
(good / bad)... where I was teaching, there was another teacher there
who was just a teacher long enough to finish her masters in
administration.... she was out of the classroom and in a A.P.s position
faster than the ink had to dry on the diploma... teaching was just a
stepping stone, my guess in ten years she will be a superintendent
somewhere...
Martin
Jeffrey Turner
> Random comments inline... as usual....
>
> Martin
>
> Dom wrote:
>
>> "Currently, about 70 percent of Connecticut's community college
>> students must take remedial courses in math or English before they can
>> start taking college-level courses."
>
> What state has the least amount of students who need to take remedial
> courses like these? There is always some article on the bad end of the
> spectrum... what about promoting the state with the best percentage....
A cursory search found no state-by-state listing, but the Gates
Foundation claims the overall average is 60%. The only other data I saw
was a gov't statistic that 41% of entering community college students,
compared to 22% of entering four-year students, took at least one
remedial course (29% total).
>> http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-college-remedial-0623.artjun23,0,3713950.story
>>
>>
>> Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation Awards $1.8 Million To 2 Community
>> Colleges In State
>> By GRACE E. MERRITT, The Hartford Courant
>>
>> June 23, 2009
>>
>> The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and MDC Inc. gave $1.8 million
>> to Connecticut and two of its community colleges Monday to expand
>> remedial education programs and improve graduation rates among low-
>> income and minority students.
>
> I sort of remember commenting on another similar article sometime around
> the first of this year... wasn't that Connecticut too?... I wonder what
> ever happened with that....
One paper I came across stated that Housatonic CC was one of the top
performers in its enrollment size classification.
>> The money will allow Housatonic and Norwalk community colleges to
>> build on innovative programs designed to bring students up to speed
>> quickly, such as an online math course that allows students to
>> progress at their own pace and a three-week math refresher course at
>> the start of the semester.
>
> The high school where I was at tried an online credit recovery program
> for a couple years - self-paced courses.... it eventually got dumped cuz
> too many kids were cheating to pass the online exams.... apparently it
> wasn't all that hard to fool the computer programs.....
It seems that an online course with an in-person exam would solve that.
>> Currently, about 70 percent of Connecticut's community college
>> students must take remedial courses in math or English before they can
>> start taking college-level courses.
>>
>> These remedial courses typically don't count toward graduation
>> requirements and can frustrate students, sometimes prompting them to
>> drop out. Only 36 percent of full- and part-time community college
>> students in Connecticut graduate within six years.
>
> Frustrate how? If the remedial courses are frustrating, wouldn't the
> regular courses be even more so?
I think they mean that the students don't like to take "extra" courses.
I'm not sure the 36% in six years graduation rate is low compared with
other states.
"Less than one-fourth of individuals who began their postsecondary
education at community colleges in 1989/90 had attained an associate's
degree (17.5%) or a certificate (5%) at the first institution in which
they enrolled by spring 1994, five years after initially enrolling.
Table 7 shows that only 17.7 percent of those who began their
postsecondary education in a community college in 1989/90 had earned an
associate's degree at any institution by 1994 and an additional 6.4
percent had earned a bachelor's degree."
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/98283.pdf
--Jeff
--
The comfort of the wealthy has always
depended upon an abundant supply of
the poor. --Voltaire
Dom
> Random comments inline... as usual....
>
> Martin
>
> Dom wrote:
> > The money will allow Housatonic and Norwalk community colleges to
> > build on innovative programs designed to bring students up to speed
> > quickly, such as an online math course that allows students to
> > progress at their own pace and a three-week math refresher course at
> > the start of the semester.
>
> The high school where I was at tried an online credit recovery program
> for a couple years - self-paced courses.... it eventually got dumped cuz
> too many kids were cheating to pass the online exams.... apparently it
> wasn't all that hard to fool the computer programs.....
In my opinion, "online math courses" do little more than perpetuate
the pseudo-education of remedial students!
John Gilmer
<maest...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:c1809996-09f9-47f3...@f33g2000vbm.googlegroups.com...
Why?
The community college system is a good transition from a crappy public
school system to "real college."
I know a lot about the Virginia system. They require all students to take
a placement test. They just don't care about the high school diploma or
the GED. If the placement test says you aren't ready for "college English"
they make you take the equivalent of high school english. The main
potential problem is that some of these guys will barely make it past the
high school level stuff and still flunk out.
But if a kid is screwing up by the numbers in high school his best option is
to drop out of high school and shift to CC.
Oh, one way that Virginia keeps the CCs honest and the degree worthwhile is
require most 4 year public colleges to accept, under certain circumstances,
a 2 year CC degree for the first 2 years of the 4 year college. That keeps
the pressure on to keep up the standards because it usually is much more
expensive to educate juniors and seniors. Freshmen, in particular, are
taught by grad students and "instructors" and/or are subject to "lecture
hall" courses.
The CC "loophole" is started to be exploited by home educated kids and many
"gifted" kids.
"Gifted" kids often can take "real college" courses at age 12!
The Serial Killfiler
> Random comments inline... as usual....
>
> Martin
>
> Dom wrote:
> > "Currently, about 70 percent of Connecticut's community college
> > students must take remedial courses in math or English before they can
> > start taking college-level courses."
>
> What state has the least amount of students who need to take remedial
> courses like these? There is always some article on the bad end of the
> spectrum... what about promoting the state with the best percentage....
Why is anyone surprised that so many CC students take remedial
courses? Isn't it true that
the CCs typically have nonselective admissions and enroll students who
didn't take a college
prep curriculum and/or nontrads who didn't even consider college when
they were young enough to actually prepare?
We have to remember that a "regular" diploma is at best the 9th grade
plus the 10th grade, repeated three times.
Get mediocre grades and you have the equivalent of a 6th-8th grade
education, maybe.
TSK
The Serial Killfiler
How much do you know about this? Do you actually know anything about
distance courses, or are you assuming?
Junoexpress
>
> The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and MDC Inc. gave $1.8 million
> to Connecticut and two of its community colleges Monday to expand
> remedial education programs and improve graduation rates among low-
> income and minority students.
>
> The money will allow Housatonic and Norwalk community colleges to
> build on innovative programs designed to bring students up to speed
> quickly, such as an online math course that allows students to
> progress at their own pace and a three-week math refresher course at
> the start of the semester.
>
Shame the "innovation" could not be aimed at devising a school with
vocational programs that would teach these marginally educated
students an actual skill they could use when they "graduated".
M
Bob LeChevalier
Charitable foundations tend not to be devoted to "investing in
prospects", but rather in providing charity; i.e. "leveling the
playing field".
lojbab
---
Bob LeChevalier - artificial linguist; genealogist
loj...@lojban.org Lojban language www.lojban.org