Two Colorado middle schools offer college-level remedial math class

Teacher John Karakoulakis works one-on-one with students at Kearney Middle School on Thursday as they toil on a college-level online remedial math class. Colorado colleges spent $19 million on remediation in the 2009-10 school year. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)

Twelve school districts in Colorado are sharing a seven-year, $35 million federal grant aimed at increasing college attendance.

Hiring counselors, staging college fairs and offering scholarships are all part of the deal. But two schools in Commerce City are taking it further in an effort to curb rising numbers of students who arrive at college and then are forced to take remedial courses before they can even begin their degree work.

The idea is simple: Give eighth-graders the chance now to take the math class they would have to take in college if they score poorly on their placement tests.

If they take it now and pass, it goes on their transcript.

"It's amazing to see that I can take a college class," said 14-year-old Abigail Soberano, a student at Kearney Middle School. "I think it's a good opportunity, especially since I'm not that good at math. It has really helped improve my skills, and the better I get, the more I enjoy it."

The students, 52 eighth-graders at Kearney and Adams City Middle School in Commerce City, are starting off the pilot program, taking the remedial math course online through Adams State College.

Adams County School District 14 was already considering the idea as a way to improve dismal math scores, but the federal Gear Up grant allowed the district to speed things up and add the element of college transcripts.

"It's a fantastic way to get another intervention to the kids, but it's equally important that we're helping make more of them college-ready," said district spokesman John Albright.

One semester in, and the students' success with the course is promising.

Of the 52 students, 10 are on track to complete not one but two college math courses by the end of the school year, and only three have fallen behind and might not finish the course this year.

Students in the program are enrolled in two math classes: the online class through Adams State and the traditional

"It has really helped improve my skills, and the better I get, the more I enjoy it." 14-year-old Abigail Soberano, a student at Kearney Middle School (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)

eighth-grade math class.

District officials are cautiously optimistic as they analyze the first-year data and compare how the students are translating what they learn in the college class to what they are doing in their traditional math class.

Teacher Don Kirsch was concerned in the beginning that differently paced courses might confuse some students. Instead, he found that students enrolled in the college class are doing better than other students in the traditional math class.

The college course, math 030, has a nearly identical curriculum to the regular eighth- grade math that Kirsch would otherwise be using. But the pace is determined by students.

Math 030 is also the first to which Colorado students could get assigned in college if they score too low on placement tests.

"We're asking kids to take the same courses twice," said Scott Mendelsberg, executive director of the Gear Up grant. "It's a broken system that cannot and will not work as it's set up."

According to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education's report on remediation needs published in February 2011, 28.6 percent of recent Colorado graduates required remedial classes in college.

Remediation cost in-state colleges $19 million in the 2009-10 school year.

The report shows 56.9 percent of Adams 14 graduates required remedial courses in 2010.

For students, having to take additional college classes ? often at their own expense and not counting toward a degree ? makes them more likely to drop out before earning a college degree, according to the higher-education report.

"The way it's set up now, you take pre-algebra, algebra, then geometry and so on, and in theory these classes are supposed to prepare you for college," Mendelsberg said. "But then students graduate, and colleges say you don't know these basics. I think they do know the material, but some forget; others just aren't good at test-taking or they can't afford to take the test 10 to 12 times to use their highest score."

But by allowing the middle- schoolers to have the credit recorded on a college transcript, they won't have to retake the course after high school regardless of what they score on placement tests.

In addition to getting more schools and districts on board, Mendelsberg said the next step is creating a more effective and targeted refresher course for entering college students who do need a review, without having to get bogged down in a year of classes that won't earn them credit toward any degree.

"We're on the front end of this," Mendelsberg said. "Colleges have different ways they're thinking about this, but what I can guarantee is these kids won't be sitting in classrooms that they already sat in when they were in eighth grade.

"It might not eliminate remediation, but it's going to make a huge impact."

Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372 or yrobles@denverpost.com

Source: http://feeds.denverpost.com/~r/dp-news-local/~3/YQjUEzvcbVs/ci_19685194

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