Page 101 - EdViewptsSpring2021

Enter our knight in shining armor, rigor of a college level course despite
Atlantic Cape Community College, academic deficiencies. To offer dual- We do not want stu-
to the rescue! Just as their billboard credit courses at a reduced rate and dents to merely enter
advertises superheroes in capes, their not offer a support system for students
partnership with us truly saved the day who are academically disqualified is in college for the sake
and made our Early College Program essence an inequitable system. Sure, of doing so. We want
a success. Working with the Dean Advanced Placement level students students to become
of Career Education and Workforce and students from well-off families will
Development, Donna Vassallo, we participate. But how do we support our active learners, en-
developed a three-tiered approach economically disadvantaged students? gaged in the course
to our dilemma: Leveraging grant Our students who strive to be the first
funding to create free college credit in their families to attend college? content, to “find their
opportunities for students, developing The ones for whom this program was calling”, and to end
early assessment and remediation ultimately created? up with attractive and
programs, and improving appropriate Remediation programs address
career-technical education pathways student weaknesses, help non- lucrative careers upon
relevant to the labor market and traditional students, and enhance graduation.
student interest. diversity in our Early College program.
Resource leveraging refers to Atlantic Cape Community College for the sake of doing so. We want
systematically assessing the use of programs such as Math Boot Camp students to become active learners,
existing resources, identifying the and English Advanced Learning engaged in the course content, to
need for additional resources, or Program Support (ALP) allow “find their calling”, and to end up with
creating new resources. Effective students to mitigate learning gaps attractive and lucrative careers upon
application of this principle requires and improve verbal and mathematical graduation. Partnering with ACCC
strong partnership among educational skills necessary to be successful in a has enabled us to offer courses to
systems. This cross-sector approach college level course. The courses also students relevant to our Career and
leads to the mapping and analysis prepare students by helping them to Technical Education programs. The
of funding gaps, which will lead to develop self-discipline and teaching college leverages Perkins funding to
the development of new strategies them the “keys to college success” assist us in collaboratively offering
that will contribute resources needed such as regular attendance, study college credit-bearing computer
to sufficiently invest in students’ skills, how to utilize resources, and science, business, culinary, criminal
education success. (American Institute the importance of active participation. justice, TV/media, engineering, and
for Research, 2020). (Kokemuller, 2017) Our community biomedical courses which accelerate
New Jersey Department of Education college assesses all students to student learning, and give students the
guidance as to use of Title IV funds, determine their limitations and opportunity to explore potential career
clearly states that funds can be provides our students with these paths that lead to vast job markets and
used to increase the availability remedial courses free of charge. high paying wages.
of accelerated learning courses, A third and final area that our In close, the coordination and interplay
dual or concurrent enrollment, and partnership with ACCC helped between local high schools and post-
early college high school courses. us to improve was to find ways to secondary institutions are critical to
(Webster, 2019) Using these funds, encourage our students to persevere the successful implementation of an
coupled with funds from Atlantic Cape through multiple dual-credit courses on Early College program. Partnerships
Community College, we were able to a pathway towards college. Here our geared towards increasing student
offer free concurrent courses for our guidance department in partnership enrollment, readiness, and persistence
economically disadvantaged students with ACCC offered many outreach in college are crucial to ensuring
such as English 101, English 102, efforts to inform parents, guardians, that all students have access to the
Sociology, and Economics. With a and students about career options type of programming which can light
more sizeable list of credit bearing and program pathways available in the pathway to college and career
courses, offered at no cost, we were the school. These pathways helped readiness. If we want to ensure
able to garner more interest in the us to not only capture student interest, equity for all learners, collaboration of
program and from a more diverse but to enable students to persist stakeholders and forming an alliance
population of students. through a sequence of courses aimed with local community colleges is
Now, we were faced with the next at culmination in a job relevant to the essential.
issue — ensuring that all of our local labor market. We do not want
students would be able to handle the students to merely enter college

Educational Viewpoints -99- Spring 2021