Hispanic
students at Cuyamaca College will soon see a significant boost in efforts aimed
at guiding them toward obtaining certificates and degrees and transferring to
four-year colleges and universities, thanks to a nearly $2.6-million, five-year
federal grant.
Cuyamaca College had already developed programs that are significantly reducing remedial education requirements in English, math, and ESL for certain groups of underprepared students and English-language learners, and those students are successfully completing college-level English and math courses at significantly higher rates and in much less time.
The grant is funded through the U.S. Department of Education’s Developing
Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program, a program assisting Hispanic Serving
Institutions such as Cuyamaca College to expand educational opportunities and
improve academic achievement.
Hispanic
Serving Institutions are colleges or universities where Hispanics make up at
least 25 percent of the school’s students and that have adopted strategies to
help first-generation, low-income Latino students. Nearly one in three of the
about 9,000 students at Cuyamaca College are Latino.
“It is exciting for the college to implement this kind of grant and these kind
of programs that will greatly benefit our students,” said Scott Thayer,
Cuyamaca College’s vice president of student services. “Cuyamaca College is
committed to doing everything possible to make sure our students succeed.”
The grant will fund a new program dubbed The Pathway Academy, a student success
effort containing the following strategies:
- Minimizing the time students spend in remedial classes that are known among academics as basic skills or developmental courses. Studies have shown that every added basic skills class a student is required to take reduces his or her chances of graduating.
- Expanding student support services for Hispanic students, including creating clear roadmaps detailing what a student must do to complete his or her educational goals.
- Professional development for all faculty and staff, including workshops and training that provide instructors with the latest research on best practices in student success strategies.
The effectiveness of the program will be measured through increased
persistence, course completion, remedial progress rates and the numbers of
students earning degrees and certificates and transferring to four-year colleges
and universities.
Thayer
noted that the Pathway Academy builds upon a number of related efforts at
Cuyamaca College that have been implemented in recent years, including the
First Year Experience, a comprehensive program designed to assist and guide
students through their first year in college.
In
September 2015, Grossmont College received a similar five-year federal grant
for $2.62 million to fund a program aimed at helping Hispanic students succeed.
The grant funds are being used to develop a program called Via RĂ¡pida, which
assists with outreach, assessment and accelerated programs for Hispanic
students.
Cuyamaca College’s grant is the
second major award provided to the college this year to boost student success.
Cuyamaca secured a $1.5 million state grant in May that expands on the
college’s innovative programs to dramatically reduce the remedial pipeline and
better prepare students for college level coursework. The Basic Skills and
Student Outcomes Transformation Program grant will enable Cuyamaca College to
significantly reduce the number of students forced into remedial education
courses. Cuyamaca College had already developed programs that are significantly reducing remedial education requirements in English, math, and ESL for certain groups of underprepared students and English-language learners, and those students are successfully completing college-level English and math courses at significantly higher rates and in much less time.