A $1.5 million state grant designed to better prepare students for success in college level courses will go to Cuyamaca College, the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District announced Tuesday.
The three-year grant will enable the college in Rancho San Diego to reduce its reliance on assessment tests, and instead use multiple measures that also include high school grade-point averages, in deciding whether students should enroll in remedial or standard college classes.
College officials said more than three-quarters of California community college students who take assessment tests before enrolling are assigned to one or more remedial courses in math or English.
Relatively few of those students successfully complete college-level courses in those subjects and go on to earn a degree or certificate.
However, studies have found that the students could have succeeded if they had been enrolled in college-level classes in the first place, they said.
The college will also be able to offer accelerated remedial math and English programs, and put students in remedial and college level courses in the same subject simultaneously.
Money from the grant will be used to fund instructional materials, teacher training programs, developing support courses and paying for faculty.
“This grant will allow us to build upon efforts that shorten the bridge between developmental education and college completion,” Cuyamaca President Julianna Barnes said.
The grant to Cuyamaca College was part of $60 million awarded statewide in the Basic Skills and Student Outcomes Transformation Program.
–City News Service
