Alamo Community Colleges News & Events

SAC Summer Bridge Program Improves College Readiness Among High School Students

For Immediate Release
July 31, 2007
Contact: Deborah Martin, San Antonio College, Public Relations
(210) 733-2149
dmartin@accd.edu

Students and program staff from the 2007 Summer Bridges Program at San Antonio College (SAC)

Photo by Leonard Ziegler

Forty incoming 11th and 12th grade students from Jefferson, Edison and Fox Tech high schools recently graduated from San Antonio College’s Summer Bridge Program, which ran for six weeks in June through July, with funding from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). With a goal to improve students’ college-readiness levels, the program offered early assessment of students' placement levels with tests administered before and after the program, English and Writing remedial courses, as well as a remedial Mathematics lab.

“What impressed me most is that we started with 40 students, and finished with the same 40,” said Ruben Flores, Dean of Evening, Weekend and Distance Education. “Moreover, while all students had to meet minimum requirements to participate, in the end, more than half of them (25) raised themselves up to college level.”

To facilitate the program, Dean Flores brought together all of his division staff, including Program Coordinators Daniel Sustaita and David Ellis. The team also included SAC’s Writing Center, the English, Reading and Math Departments; the Assessment, Career Planning and Internet Skills Centers; and the San Antonio Independent School District. Additionally, during the upcoming academic year, Flores indicated that a coordinator with the SAISD will monitor the students’ high school performance to encourage their continued academic progress, and recruit them for dual credit and/or Weekend College. The monitor will serve as a contact to the college, and help the students transition into SAC’s Senior Summer Program following their high school graduation, and eventually enroll them in college courses.

“The faculty and staff really helped these students bond with one another as they worked together to learn and master pre-college curriculum,” Flores said. “It was interesting to note that while they all came from rival schools, during the program they identified themselves as SAC students. We want to continue that.”

Furthermore, Dean Flores said, his division received a second THECB grant that enabled the Senior Summer Program to add such enhancements as time in the Writing Center and a Math lab. Data showed these activities improved student performance for English 0301 and 1301, and Math 0303. For example, most course sections this year had completion rates of 100 percent, compared with past year course completion rates of 80 to 95 percent.