With developmental math classes often times being the biggest road blocks for college students, frustrating them beyond belief, Northwest Vista College has made their developmental math program its No. 1 priority.
As a result, according to Cindi Bluhm, academic leader of the academic foundations program at Northwest Vista, they have a success rate of 70 percent of students passing their developmental math classes.
According to math coordinator Anna Harwin, the average time a student has to repeat a developmental math class at their college is 1.1 percent.
The program has received recognition from certain organizations and has shared its strategies and data with other schools, the district board of trustees and is working with the districtwide initiative Achieving the Dream.
What makes the program successful is the design of the program, the resources offered to students, and the attitude of the faculty.
Students in all levels of developmental math are required to attend a one-hour math lab each week.
They attend lab hours on their own time at the center for collaborative learning.
Observing the center on a personal tour given by Harwin and mathematics coordinator Wesley Anderson, the center is a very lively, interactive and comfortable place. Somewhat loud and near full capacity, some students were writing on the board giving each other group lessons, some chatted among themselves at the tables and others were getting attention from student tutors.
Harwin pointed out how much the department values their student tutors.
These tutors are students who have gone through the same program and remember what it is like, where as sometimes the faculty will forget, said Harwin.
The advocacy center is a much quieter place where students in need of extra attention can go.
The intention of the center is to help students who have missed class, and offer one on one tutoring to students who feel they are not doing well in class. The staff in the advocacy center also perform other counseling services such as drop counseling and advising.
The staff advises students on strategies on how to stay in school, how to get through developmental courses and what instructor to pick who teaches in their learning style.
Dropping students from their class is the last thing professors want to do; therefore, they more willingly give students an in-progress grade, said Harwin. An IP grade is a non-punitive grade meaning students don't have to worry about staying in a developmental class through its entirety and failing, which would normally impact their grade point average and financial aid. Rather, students would have to take it again until they pass it.
The advantage of that is students would have some knowledge on the subject already that would help them pass the course the next time, said Harwin.
"We are devoted to our student success," said Bluhm, which sets the tone for the entire staff.
Faculty, whether part-time or full, are chosen based on their commitment to the program, students and knowledge of the subject, said Bluhm.
"When you come here your mission better be to change lives," said Harwin in regard to choosing new faculty members.
Before each fall and spring semesters, all staff members attend faculty development days where they attend all-day workshops, review and modify their syllabuses and have discussions about the program to get all the teachers on common ground, said Bluhm.
Most of the developmental classes are held in Mountain Laurel Hall to provide easy access to the labs, but there are some classes on the boardwalk, the extensive portable system at Northwest Vista, Wesley said.
In the fall, all classes will be in one of the new buildings Northwest Vista is gaining from the 2005 bond election, complete with the labs that will be placed in the middle of the classes to provide a centralized system, he said.
The new building will be called Juniper Hall, which will not only house the math developmental classes but the English, English as a second language and reading developmental classes, better known as the academic foundations department, as well, Bluhm said.
Harwin urges those students who have given up on math to allow their program to help them, promising, "Once you make it through, you will be successful."
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