If a student doesn’t pass his first math course, he may very well drop out of college. Jeffrey Knapp knows that. And Mr. Knapp, director of the Academy for the Art of Teaching at Florida International University, knew that the pass rates in low-level math courses there, between 33 and 45 percent, were too low.
When he heard that the Wal-Mart Foundation and the Institute for Higher Education Policy were giving grants to minority-serving institutions to help retain first-generation students, he immediately contacted the math department. Florida International, a Hispanic-serving institution in Miami, has 31,500 undergraduates, and about 50 percent are first-generation students. Many of them, Mr. Knapp says, come to the university underprepared.
After winning the grant last spring, helping those students pass math became his mission. The math department developed “Wal-Mart classes,” which would meet the regular three times a week, but for double-length periods: an hour and 40 minutes. Adjunct professors would still teach the introductory courses, algebra and trigonometry, but the department chose only its best teachers. It also hired a crew of student learning assistants, so that the classes could blend lecture and peer-led, small-group instruction.
Good plan if students sign up, but last semester they didn’t, and the department had to cancel the courses. But Mr. Knapp and a couple of math professors recruited early and hard for this semester. They visited classes; they sent personalized e-mail messages. They enrolled 91 students in three courses—and had to turn non-first-generation students away.
In an algebra class, Ada Monserrat lectures for 15 minutes, then challenges students with problems. “One of the essential things in math is to be able to practice the material that you just covered,” says Ms. Monserrat, an adjunct instructor. “I lecture a little bit, they practice a little bit, they grasp the material, and they’re ready for the next part.”
Seven students practice with Jaime Botero, who encourages them to bring in homework questions they didn’t get. Mr. Botero started taking math courses at Florida International after graduating from Amherst College and moving home, to fulfill prerequisites for a master’s in teaching. As a learning assistant, he also takes a one-credit tutor-training seminar. But Mr. Botero, a first-generation student himself, helps his group with more than math.
“Students think all they have to do is show up to lecture, write things down in their notebook, close it, and that’s that,” he says. “In fact,” he tells them, “that’s just the beginning of what you have to do to do well.”
The first round of exams looked better than usual, says Ms. Monserrat, and classes have become much more interactive. Students are asking questions, she says, and they seem to be trying harder. On Fridays, some linger after class with Mr. Botero and another learning assistant, doing problems.
Mr. Knapp will track this cohort of students: how they do in subsequent math classes, whether they graduate. But first things first. “The university would be thrilled with a 5-percent increase in the rate of students passing the course,” he says. “That would be a giant first step.”
