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"The majority of high school students are placed in remedial math in college and fewer than half of those students go on to graduate from college," said Christine McCabe, executive director at College Spark Washington. "The College-Ready Math Initiative will give students the support they need to develop math skills in high school and help get them on the pathway to a college degree."College Spark Washington recently announced a $12 million investment over seven years in a new College-Ready Math Initiative to help low-income students graduate high school with the math skills needed to avoid remediation and succeed in college.
The College-Ready Math Initiative invests in evidence-based strategies and programs designed to help students improve their score on the 11th grade Smarter Balanced Assessment, which measures a students' growth on the Common Core State Standards. Education experts have predicted that 70 percent of the students who take the 11th grade Smarter Balanced Assessment in 2015 will score below the college-ready level on the math section of the test.
The College-Ready Math Initiative will invest in the following four evidence-based strategies to help improve students' score on this assessment:
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School-Year Academic Youth Development: An advisory curriculum that helps students develop a growth mindset to improve their performance by motivating and engaging them in STEM courses. The curriculum will be embedded into Washington's advisory program, Career Guidance Washington, formerly known as Navigation 101. The program along with Intensified Algebra has proven to improve students' math and science test scores, GPA, attendance and measures of student behavior including suspensions and expulsions.
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Intensified Algebra: This program is for eligible 8th, 9th or 10th grade students who are one to two years behind in math. The program combines a growth mindset curriculum with pre-Algebra and Algebra I course content.
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Senior Transition Courses: These Math and English Language Arts courses are for seniors who score below the college-ready level on the Smarter Balanced Assessment in 11th grade. Students who pass the course will be considered college-ready by the majority of colleges in Washington and permitted to enroll in college-level math and English courses without additional placement testing.
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Equity in Higher Level Math: Research shows that students who take rigorous math courses during their senior year do better in college than other students, and that many of the low-income students and students of color who could succeed in such courses are missing from these classes. A variety of strategies will be funded to increase access to and success in higher level math courses including school partnership with Equal Opportunity Schools.
School districts may apply to get these programs incorporated at their schools on the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction website (form package #771) between Sept. 17 and Oct. 30.
College Spark Washington funds programs across Washington state that help low-income students become college-ready and earn their degrees. Grantees include community-based organizations, K-12 schools and districts, community and technical colleges, four-year colleges and universities, educational nonprofits, and public agencies. College Spark began supporting access to higher education in 1978 and, since 2005, has awarded more than $38 million to college readiness and degree completion programs throughout the state.
For more information on the College-Ready Math Initiative, visit www.collegespark.org/page/127/College-Ready+Math+Initiative+.
