TRANQUILLITY, Calif. (KSEE) – With the help of a four million dollar federal grant an organization is working to bridge the math gap through dual enrollment at a local high school.
Students in Brad Scott’s math classes get a lot of support. The Tranquillity high school teacher says he provides opportunities both in and outside the classroom.
“In the classroom make sure that they know that it’s ok to make mistakes, that they can try something and mess up and grow from that. Outside the classroom we are doing things like taking students to Fresno State’s Math Field Day,” says Scott.
Despite this teacher’s hard work, there are many students at Tranquility that aren’t meeting state standards in math, and that could make success in college more difficult.
“My intention is that we really bridge the high school college gap,” says Scott.
District superintendent Martin Macias is hoping to do that by bringing instructors from West Hills Community College onto the campus with a dual enrollment program called ‘College Bridge’.
“College Bridge is an organization that was born to literally bridge the gap between high school and college so the program and the project that we are bringing to the Central Valley right now is called the Math Bridge Project,” says Dr. Lynn Cevallos, President of College Bridge.
The Math Bridge Project aims to introduce students to college courses using the subject many of them dislike.
“The students it’s aimed for are students that hear the term college math and they go no thank you, I do not want to participate in that,” says Lynn.
College Bridge officials are meeting with high schools that want to show their students they can do rigorous coursework.
“It provides our staff at the high school with the opportunity to work with college professors to really bridge that math gap that we might have,” says Macias.
Six rural community colleges in the Central Valley are participating in Math Bridge. All are members of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) which is assisting with the program.
“A lot of our students in the rural communities don’t have the opportunity to take these college courses because they don’t have a community college close to them so bring dual enrollment to the high school campus now these students are able to take college classes in their regular day to day high school,” says Angel Ramirez, manager of CVHEC.
Showing students they can do rigorous coursework will help them not only learn but aspire to achieve more than they thought they could.
Registration is still open for high schools that want to participate in the program.
