Rama Kased shudders whenever she thinks about the nearly 40 percent of students throughout California State University who drop out before their junior year.
That sobering statistic alone motivates Kased and others at San Francisco State University to continually fine-tune and upgrade their Metro Academies program, which is credited in large part for 87 percent of its participants remaining enrolled by their junior year.
Begun in 2009, SFSU’s Metro program resulted from restructuring the curriculum for freshmen and sophomores who choose to enroll in the program. Metro cohorts are mini-schools within the university that each enroll up to 140 students. Every Metro cohort has a career theme focused on real-life issues in the neighborhoods where students typically live: health, science and child development, to name a few.
For two years, every Metro student takes two linked courses per semester with his or her peers. The courses count toward all academic majors that SFSU offers. Although these students simultaneously take other lower-division courses with non-Metro freshmen and sophomores, the Metro classes are geared specifically for bolstering math, writing and public speaking skills and the ability to juggle deadlines.
Metro participants overwhelmingly fall into one or more of the following categories: first-generation college student, Pell Grant eligible, underrepresented racial minority or undocumented immigrant. Latinos make up about 48 percent of Metro students, followed by Asian Americans at 24 percent and Blacks at 10 percent. Most Metro freshmen at SFSU are double-remediated in English and math.
Universitywide, about 46 percent of undergraduates are Pell Grant eligible and 30 percent are first-generation college students.
The socially responsive curriculum in each Metro cohort encourages students to think critically about their day-to-day realities, says Kased, who is director of student services and oversees academy coordinators within Metro.
