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| Project is called Global Skills for College Completion |
Michelle Zollars (left) and Bronté Miller of Patrick Henry Community College discuss their work in developmental education at PHCC. They have been chosen to participate in a nationwide forum called Global Skills for College Completion to improve passing rates for students in college preparatory programs. (Bulletin photo) |
Monday, December 28, 2009
By ELIZA WINSTON - Bulletin Staff Writer
Two Patrick Henry Community College teachers will be using the Internet to help schools across the nation better prepare students for success in their first college courses.
Michelle Zollars and Bronté Miller, who both teach developmental education at PHCC, are two of 26 teachers selected to participate in a nationwide forum on improving college preparedness across the country.
The project, called Global Skills for College Completion, is organized by the League for Innovation, Knowledge for Public Interest, LaGuardia Community College and the Gates Foundation. Funding for the project comes from the Gates Foundation while the League for Innovation, Knowledge for Public Interest and LaGuardia Community College administer the grant.
Developmental education serves students who are not prepared for college-level work. According to Miller, 80 percent of students nationwide are not prepared for college-level math or English and need basic skills development.
Zollars said the goal of the project is to increase the amount of students who pass their developmental education courses. According to LaGuardia Community College, of the 80 percent of college students nationwide placed into developmental classes, only 60 percent ultimately pass those classes. The goal of the GSCC project is to bring that passing rate up to 80 percent.
Although it will be difficult to get 80 percent, Miller said she believes in setting high goals. It will take two years of working on the GSCC project for all of the selected teachers to share information and figure out the most successful developmental education strategies.
Miller said PHCC has open door policy, meaning anyone with a high school degree or the equivalent who can benefit from more education will be accepted. As a result, everyone who enters PHCC gets a placement test in reading, writing and math, she said.
Students who don’t do well on the placement tests will go into developmental education classes before taking their beginning courses. The developmental education program began at PHCC 17 years ago with three faculty members, including Zollars and Miller.
Many different types of students benefit from developmental education classes, Zollars said. Some may be students who took their last math class their junior year of high school and have forgotten a lot of the material; some students were out of school for 20 years; some never planned to go to college; and some did not do well in math or English classes, she said.
PHCC is known as one of the best colleges in the nation for developmental education, Miller said. Last year it received the John Champaigne Memorial Award for Outstanding Developmental Education Program, she said.
LaGuardia Community College was in charge of inviting community colleges with strong developmental education programs to nominate teachers for the project. LaGuardia probably was aware of PHCC’s reputation, Miller said, and it contacted the president to ask for nominations.
According to Miller, LaGuardia called presidents of colleges across the country to invite them to nominate an English or math developmental education teachers. Presidents could nominate one math teacher, one English teacher or both Miller said.
Both she and Zollars both were nominated and selected to participate in the project. She said only a few of the other other selected colleges had two teachers nominated and selected.
On Jan. 4, Miller and Zollars will go to Phoenix, Ariz., to meet the other project teachers and share their experiences. In addition, every couple of weeks the participants will hold an online forum to discuss successful teaching methods and ideas for developmental education. |
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