Tyler Junior College has received a grant that will help students achieve greater success in mathematics courses.
TJC was one of eight East Texas community colleges encouraged to apply for funding from a $960,000 grant from the Texas Success Center to help with scaling essential practices of the Texas Pathways model.
The Texas Success Center, a division of the Texas Association of Community Colleges (TACC), received the grant from the T.L.L. Temple Foundation.
TJC’s $105,000 award will allow for the creation of two mathematics labs, which will offer additional technology such as computers and graphing calculators as well as personalized attention from math faculty and peer tutors.
“These labs will enable us to help a lot of students, especially those that we can identify early,” said Dr. Belinda Prihoda, TJC director of institutional effectiveness, who was a member of the grant application committee.
Prihoda continued, “By monitoring the students’ grades early in the semester, faculty can identify those who might be struggling and recommend them to the math lab. This gives us a greater chance of getting students the help they need to successfully complete the course, and it helps to reduce the number of students who might withdraw from the class all together.”
In addition to Prihoda, the TJC grant application committee included: Dr. Tim Drain, associate vice provost for student affairs; Dr. Terry Peterman, associate vice provost for academic and workforce affairs; Dr. Cliff Boucher, dean of the School of Engineering, Mathematics and Sciences; Dr. Tam Nannen, dean of students; and Barbara Greenbauer, director of major gifts and special initiatives.
Dr. Deana Sheppard, TJC provost and vice president for academic and student affairs and chief academic officer, said, “We appreciate the T.L.L. Temple Foundation and the Texas Success Center for this incredible opportunity to help our students achieve their academic goals. I would also like to thank our TJC committee for their great work. This will be an invaluable resource for our students.”
The T.L.L. Temple Foundation has made education a top priority as an effective tool in fulfilling its mission to break the cycle of poverty and build a thriving East Texas region.
Many of the region’s fastest-growing occupations require at least an associate degree, if not a four-year degree. Through the foundation’s support, East Texas community colleges, which are deeply committed to improving student success, will use this additional support to scale Texas Pathways reform strategies aimed at improving student socioeconomic mobility by helping students with the skills they need to obtain high-quality jobs.
In addition to TJC, these East Texas colleges were eligible to apply for the grant to support scaling of the Texas Pathways model: Kilgore College; Lee College; Northeast Texas Community College; Paris Junior College; San Jacinto College; Texarkana College; and Trinity Valley Community College.
About the Texas Success Center
The Texas Success Center, a member of the national Student Success Center Network, supports Texas community colleges’ efforts to improve student success and directs Texas Pathways, a statewide strategy focused on building capacity for community colleges to design, implement and continuously improve structured academic and career pathways at scale, for all students.
About the Texas Pathways strategy
The Texas Pathways model is an integrated, system-wide approach to student success based on intentionally designed, clear, coherent and structured educational experiences, informed by available evidence, that guide each student effectively and efficiently from the selection of their high school degree program to his/her point of postsecondary entry through to attainment of high-quality credentials and careers with value in the labor market. Central to the pathways model are clear, educationally coherent program maps that are aligned to what will be expected of students upon program completion in the workforce and in education at the next level in a given field.