School had never been something Isabella Gonzalez excelled in. She spent her years leading up to high school dreading the assignments that proved to be harder every day, especially for a student who speaks English as a second language. After struggling through her first three years, Gonzalez was offered a spot in Central College’s pilot remedial education program, Early Support. With tailored academic plans and dedicated instructors, Gonzalez finished her senior year with straight A’s and an acceptance to Central to continue her education.
Gonzalez is just one of 85 students who have drastically improved their SAT scores and received more college acceptances due to the success of Early Support. The program began a year ago, partnering Central College with local high schools to help struggling students reach the same potential as their peers. Central is one of five colleges in Missouri chosen to participate in the program. Over the course of the year, classes were taught by Central faculty members in online interactive classrooms. Students were offered more one-on-one time with instructors than average high school students, helping them fill in the gaps they needed to thrive.
“We could not have asked for Early Support to be more successful,” said Central College President Leon DeWitt. “The interactive classrooms and individualized learning plans helped these students reach the potential they always had inside, but just needed the special attention to reach.”
Although there were bumps in the road from time to time with technology issues, Central College faculty helped students get into a routine for higher learning with higher expectations. After a year of hard work, students and faculty involved in the program saw nothing short of exceptional results. SAT scores of participating students saw an average increase of over 200 points from previous scores while reading comprehension and writing skills were the areas with the most improvement. Because of the large jump in English-related areas, other testing areas of the SAT saw large improvements as well.
Much like Gonzalez, English is a second language for about 25% of the students involved in Early Support. Because of this, regular high school curriculums were unable to give students the help needed to succeed in high school classes, let alone prepare for the academic hardships of college.
Early Support student Eduardo Arroyo loves math and science, but struggled in reading comprehension and English. He is now on his way to attending Central College and is planning on pursuing a career in engineering.
“My parents immigrated to America from Puerto Rico and I grew up speaking Spanish,” said Arroyo. “It was hard enough for me to speak English, let alone get a better understanding of grammar and reading. Early Support helped me in areas of English I never understood and it translated to harder science and math subjects too.”
Students were not the only ones with major advances toward their goals because of Early Support. Many of the faculty involved had the opportunity to see why their college students in the past may have struggled in class. By helping upcoming college students, faculty learned what was being missed in typical high school curriculum.
“It was absolutely incredible to watch these students, who came in not believing in themselves, leave the program with amazing results,” said faculty participant Amanda Day. “It makes teaching that much more inspiring.”
After a successful first year, Central College recently held a meeting with the Missouri Department of Education to discuss the results. Looking forward, Central College hopes to continue its partnership with local high schools in running Early Support.
“Seeing the difference the program made to our students in just one year leaves us excited for the future,” said DeWitt. “We hope we can expand the program further and accommodate more students so they can also have the best chance possible to achieve their dreams.”