Yoseline Ramirez works on her assignment in the math lab on Wednesday at Red Bank High School. The math program, funded by a grant from the Tennessee Board of Regents, is designed to boost teens’ math skills so they can avoid remedial classes in college.ABOUT THE PROGRAMThe Seamless Alignment and Integrated Learning Support program, or SAILS, is a combination of bridge and developmental math that started this year at Red Bank High School with 25 students.Chattanooga State Community College offers the program in collaboration with the high school math teachers to teach a four-year math course for students who score below 19 on the ACT so they don’t have to take remedial math.Chattanooga State received a $117,000 grant from the Tennessee Board of Regents to expand the program to Grundy County, Rhea County, Marion County, Sequatchie County, South Pittsburg, Whitwell, Brainerd, Red Bank, East Ridge and Howard high schools.Source: Chattanooga State Community CollegeTENNESSEE STUDENTS NEEDING REMEDIATIONIn two-year colleges:Black: 91 percentHispanic: 76 percentWhite: 66 percentSource: Complete College AmericaGRADUATION RATES BY CAMPUSUniversity of Tennessee at Chattanooga (in six years): 40 percentCleveland State Community College (in three years): 12 percentChattanooga State Community College (in three years): 7 percentSource: Complete College America
“Copy it down. Copy the whole equation,” Debra Weiss tells student Daniel Munson as she stands over his shoulder.
“What color socks are you wearing today?” she asks him.
Apparently when Munson wears gray socks, he has an easier time with math equations — at least that’s the inside joke between them.
Munson is one of 25 students at Red Bank High School participating in a Chattanooga State Community College pilot program to keep students from having to take developmental math in college.