By Daily Press staff
Local students will raise their skills to a new power with the addition of $3.5 million to fund pre-college level math studies.
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Santa Monica College a five-year grant in partnership with El Camino College in Torrance, to improve students’ math performance.
The cooperative Title V grant will be used for a variety of purposes, including establishing a math and English learning center/computer lab at SMC’s Bundy campus and integrating more technology into instruction. The grant funds are aimed at students taking pre-college level math.
“This grant gives us the means to create an exciting special program aimed at improving the achievement of our developmental math students,”said Fran Manion, SMC math department chair. “It’s particularly crucial because studies indicate that one of two students in pre-college level math classes fail.”
The SMC program developed from the grant is expected to affect more than 1,000 students at SMC and El Camino College.
Each of the two colleges will receive $300,000 a year for five years, with an additional $100,000 a year going to SMC to cover grant management and evaluation costs, and to facilitate coordination between the two colleges.
This is the third Title V grant SMC has received in the past two years. In 2004, the college was the beneficiary of two Title V grants totaling $6.2 million over five years that are being used to help first-time college students succeed and to help train teachers. The teacher-training grant also is a cooperative award with El Camino College. China’s Olympic artist makes U.S. debut in SM
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 9, 2006. Read the original PDF.