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Vol.7, No 40, November 8, 1999 
[news]

CSU grants funds to address remedial classes

By Johnna Walker
Daily Forty-Niner

Cal State Long Beach received almost $1 million from the California State University system for programs designed to reduce the need for remedial courses in math and English for first-time freshmen.

The funds have been allocated from the CSU budget and will go toward programs that will help foster a partnership between area high schools and 18 CSU campuses, CSU officials said.

Through these programs, students and instructors will be trained to teach subjects more effectively in classrooms.

This partnership will eventually eliminate remedial courses on the university level, said Ken Swisher, CSU spokesman.

"The idea is to reduce the need for remedial education among our freshmen," Swisher said.

Last fall, 54 percent of the freshmen who entered the CSU needed remedial courses in math, and 47 percent of freshmen needed remedial courses in English, Swisher stated in press release.

The new programs will differ among universities, Swisher said. Each CSU campus will decide on the program's structure.

However, the programs will have similar elements, such as a partnership between CSU faculty and high school teachers.

The instructors will work together for at least five hours a week for 30 weeks.

They will be responsible for finding effective teaching strategies for high school levels, discovered and discussed between faculty of the universities and high schools, according to a press release from the Chancellor's Office.

The high schools that send the most students in need of remedial courses to CSU campuses have been pinpointed to participate in the program, according to the CSU press release.

CSULB received the largest grant, based on the proposal they submitted to the CSU, said Rick Gloady, spokesman for CSULB.

The university recently received the money, which has been given to both the English department and the math department.

The English department is already planning to use the funds to address this problem, said  Mark Wiley, CSULB composition coordinator and an English associate professor.

The department will work with six high schools, four of which are in Long Beach. Wilson, Polytechnic, Jordan, Lakewood and two Orange County high schools agreed to cooperate with CSULB in their efforts, Wiley said.

The schools were selected either because many of their students attend CSULB after graduation, or because they have higher rates of students who need remedial education within the CSU, he said.

"We hope to be either teaching classes to high school seniors, or working with teachers of high school students in the spring," Wiley said.

Working with high school teachers would be the preference of the English department because they are teaching the students who come to CSULB after graduating high school, he said.

 

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