When Rosaria Eraso graduated from Catholic High School of Baltimore, she decided to attend the local Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC). She did not want to go to a four-year college before being certain about her academic goals. “I was unsure what my major was going to be,” she says.
At CCBC, Eraso decided to pursue an associate degree in general studies and is researching different majors for when she transfers to a four-year university. The school year is busy for her. In between classes, she competes in lacrosse, which she played last year at CCBC; dances with a local rec team; and puts in 20 hours a week working at LA Fitness.
Entering CCBC, Eraso says she knew that math would be her greatest quandary other than deciding on an eventual major. It was never her strong suit in high school, she says. When she took the entrance exam, she placed into the remedial level, which gave her some concern. “I knew that it would be a setback to have to take all those classes,” Eraso says.
Students cannot graduate until they pass an entry-level, credit-bearing math class, so the college suggested that she take its Accelerated Math Program (AMP) to catch her up to speed. AMP allows students to take an upper-level math class and a lower-level class simultaneously. The lower-level class offers more academic support and the upper-level class moves students through the remedial sequence faster than they would otherwise.
CCBC is well known for its Accelerated Learning Progam (ALP), a developmental writing program. Like AMP, ALP combines upper-level and lower-level writing classes, putting students on track to complete English 101 faster than they would in a traditional remedial class.
ALP was the subject of a series of Community College Research Center (CCRC) studies. CCRC researchers found that the ALP approach resulted in better outcomes for students in terms of completing credit-bearing English classes.
“Often lengthy remedial sequences pose a barrier to completion for students and what we’ve seen is that co-requisite models are oftentimes the most promising reforms in terms of the impact that you see on completing remedial sequences and completing a gatekeeper course in math or English,” says Madeline Trimble, a data analyst at the CCRC.
