Partnership for Academic Transitions (MI-PAT). These five teams will join the creative energies of high schools and colleges so they can work together to remove barriers and support student success. This will be achieved through redesign of developmental education and improved academic transitions, with a focus on increasing the number of first-year community college students who complete a gateway (credit-bearing, transferable) math course.
The learning teams will receive grant funding, broad design parameters, and access to technical assistance and national experts who work on high-impact practices associated with improved academic transitions and gateway course completion. In return, teams will commit to working toward specific improvements that are consistent with the core aims of the initiative.
Nearly $46,000 in grants will be distributed across the five learning teams. This year’s teams will be developing senior-level transition courses for high school students who are not yet college-ready at the end of their junior year and/or working on college math course placement reform that is aimed at increasing access to gateway math for more students.
“These courses are typically called gateway courses, but we really should call them what they are — barrier courses. Just 18 percent of Michigan community college students placed in remedial math courses go on to complete their degree within three years,” said Ryan Fewins-Bliss, MCAN executive director. “And we know that Black and Hispanic students are assigned to remedial classes at higher rates than other students. By reforming these transitional math courses with community colleges, we can improve educational equity and student success, increasing completion rates in support of Michigan’s Sixty by 30 goal.”
MCAN is partnering with SOVA solutions, the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Michigan Center for Student Success on this initiative. Funding is provided by the Kresge Foundation.
2021 MI-PAT Learning Teams
- Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Kalamazoo, Mich. — partnering with Gull Lake Community Schools, Comstock Public Schools and Parchment High School
- Macomb Community College, Warren, Mich. — partnering with Chippewa Valley High School
- Monroe County Community College, Monroe, Mich. — partnering with Jefferson High School, Monroe High School and Dundee Community Schools
- Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Rapids, Mich. — partnering with multiple high schools within the Grand Rapids Public Schools district
- Gogebic Community College, Ironwood, Mich. — partnering with Ewen-Trout Creek High School
Michigan Partnership for Academic Transitions will focus on improving student success through transitional math courses.